Happy, Happy, Happy Holidays to you all!

 You know how much I like words that rhyme, so I thought I would send you a Christmas Card that I wrote myself.  Ready?

It's been a tough year, in so many ways.
It started with COVID, then came the delays.
The basketball tourneys were cancelled in March.
And scrubbed were the trips to St. Louis' Arch.

The trip to San Fran got pushed to next year,
But these were just hiccups in our lives I fear.
I watch the TV with Mom and with Dad,
From all that I see, it makes me so sad.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died.

Jobs have been lost, and many have cried.

Kids have gone hungry and can't go to school.

Having a snow day is no longer cool.

They held an election, and Joe Biden won.

But a whole bunch of people don't think that it's done.

They argue and curse and scream and they yell,

A commotion so nasty that no one can quell.

No one is happy, they're mad and they're mean.

I think that Old Grinch must be on the scene.

But things will get better; Of that I am sure.

The problem of COVID, now has a cure.

We know that a mask can keep COVID at bay.

So Mom, Dad and I wear one when away.

We go out to eat, four times a week.

We must dine Al Fresco, (that's outdoors in Greek?)

For Christmas we're staying in Scottsdale, you know.

We'll walk and we'll cuddle and not miss the snow.

It may be some months before all is well.

I hope you can bear it; It's going to be swell.

And soon I'll be seeing my kids once again.

We'll read at the library, they'll pet me and then...

The dark days will be over, the sun will shine bright.

And just maybe the Left will speak to the Right.

And then you can eat, at the Rest'rant inside.

(Which may work for you - NOT for me - I have tried!)

But things will be better; In my heart I just know.

Like the spring that arrives, after tons of cold snow.

And so may I end, with a wish, then I'm done.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and a Great 2021!

Love to you all,

Your favorite-est puppy, Guinness!

Happy Thanksgiving to All

I know it's been a rough year.  For a lot of people.  It's maybe hard to think of things to be thankful for this holiday.  So I'm going to help and give you some suggestions of things that I'm thankful for.

But where do I start?  There are so many things I can think of:

I'm thankful for Aunties that love me:

For my students that made me lovely bandanas to say how much they appreciate me...

I am thankful that the election is over (even though I didn't win).  And I guess I'm thankful that I didn't win, because I wouldn't know how to be a President anyway.

I'm thankful for a Mom who doesn't get really angry at me when I do stupid stuff like pulling her coffee mug off the table.

And I'm thankful for the little ones who like to read to me and who I hope to see again real soon.

I'm thankful for my neighbors who let me come over and say hello to them (and they give me cookies and pet me and I love to take care of them back!)

I love that I have cool places to swim and play when it's really really really hot.

And I'm really thankful to have breakfast and lunch and dinner with my Mom and Dad.  (I really like doing lots of things with my Mom and Dad so maybe I'm just thankful for my Mom and Dad. 

I'm thankful for beautiful places we can go and visit.

And for beautiful plants that bloom just for us.

I'm thankful for my teeny tiny friends

And for my really big whopper friends.

And I'm especially thankful for you people who read my blog because I know you care about me and I sure care about you!

I'm going to stop there even though there are lots and lots and lots of other things I am thankful for, but now it's your turn.  What are you thankful for?

Love & Happy Thanksgiving from your favorite Dog with a Blog!  (I figure I'm safe there 'cuz I doubt if you have any other dogs blogging you!  Tee Hee!!!) 

Time to Chill Out!

 It's been a few weeks of chaos, no?  (I just learned that "NO" doesn't always mean "NO".  You see if you put a question mark after "no", it really means "yes".  How that works, I'm not sure, but Mom assures me it's right.)

Anyway, it has been weeks of chaos.  And it may not end for a long long long long time.  So I have a suggestion.  Everybody should take up yoga.  It's good for your body and it's good for your soul.  How do I know?  I went with Mom a couple of months ago to a Yoga class.  (By the way, I do Down Doggie a lot lot lot lot better than those gals at the yoga class.  But I tried not to show off.)

This is me with my Mom's friend, Ellen.  My friend Ozzie came with Ellen.  He's way up front there.  We tried to spread out like this so no one would get the COVID disease.  You won't see Mom in any of these pictures, because she is pretty bad at yoga and she made me promise not to put her picture in my blog.  And since she is right, I left her out.

I have two favorite poses in yoga.  One is Shavasana.  That's where you veg out flat on the ground and try not to snore.  I do it best on my stomach.  

The other pose, I call "Let it all hang out!"  That's when Ozzie, and me and the Yoga instructor's poodle race all around the lawn. 

 We even tried to sneak into the pool (Ozzie made me do it), but we all came back right away when we were called.  Specially because the calls sounded pretty firm!

When we finished, we all felt better.  I bet you would, too.  You should try it.

Hope you all survive whatever life throws you!

Love, G

More Animal Friends

 You all know how much I like my animal friends who live near me.  Like, Javelina and Bob Cat and Mr. Coyote.  I wish they could be such good friends that we could play together in my back yard.

I've met another animal friend who does come to my back yard.  He's a Cactus Sparrow.  Sometimes when I don't eat all my breakfast, he comes and helps me finish it off.

Here he is checking out my food bowl:

I was just watching him from behind a chair:

Then guess what he did?  He picked up one of my kibble bits and ran off with it farther in the back yard.  Then he tried to break it open by rapping it on the ground.  

You can watch my bird trying to crack the kibble open here:

G's Bird

Silly bird, I could tell him that wasn't going to work very well.

I'm sure he'll find better food somewhere else.  Meanwhile, guess where he lives?  In a high-rise just outside our back wall!

Just this morning my little friend decided to visit us on the breakfast table outside.  Luckily Dad was busy reading his paper and didn't see him.  He doesn't like my friends to get too friendly.  I don't know why.

I'm glad my feathered friend lives close by.  I wish all my friends did.

Anyway, hope you have friends who live close to you!

Love, G

I Love COVID!

 Oh, no, not really.  I don't love the virus.  But I do love what we're having to do because of the virus.

Like for instance, last week Mom and Dad decided to get out of town and go north.  (It's still a little hot in Scottsdale.  Actually, it's still a LOT hot in Scottsdale.)  So they found a hotel in Sedona that would let them take me!  Yay!!!

Mom said she talked to the people at Enchantment Resort in Sedona and they said that they were dog friendly.  But that meant that I could go and sleep in their room, but I couldn't go to eat with them at any of their restaurants.  Mom said that is the definition of NOT dog friendly.  

So we went to L'Auberge di Sedona.  In French, that means a "hostel in Sedona".  I'm not sure what they think is a hostel, but this was a lot better than any hostel I've heard of.  (At least that's what my Mom says.)  It was a beautiful place with a big cottage, just for the 3 of us.  And every morning I got to go with them for breakfast.  We sat right by Oak Creek.

We went hiking one day.  Along a trail called Bell Rock Trail.  I made Mom take a picture so you could see the Bell Rock.  Pretty cool, huh?

Another day we went driving around.  Mom had already secretly found a Dog Park for me.  So when we got close, Dad kinda had to agree to let me out.  It was great.  They even had a couple of those bathtubs that Mom says is really a swimming pool.  I hate to say it, but maybe she was right?  I took a flop in the pool just to be sure.  And it was just like a pool.  Hmmm.  I may have to rethink that thing back at home.

Then at night we got to go back to the Oak Creek for dinner.  And I got to go too!  I'm in heaven.

I know I should not like COVID.  And I DO feel bad about people getting sick.  But I've had a lot of extra attention and man do I love that!!!

Hope you are doing well in this awful virus era.  It will be over sometime.  I'm sure of it.

Love, G

Oh, no! The Worstest Dog Park in the World

 This week we went back to my favorite dog park.  You remember, the one with the fun lake in it.  Dad even came with us.  (Which wasn't maybe a good idea, as you will soon see.)

We rode the whole 47 minutes to get there.  And it was hot, hot, hot.  Even though we went in the morning when it wasn't as hot as it was going to get.  I was really looking forward to jumping in the lake with my friends.  And to showing Dad how fun it was.

When we got to the park, there were dogs running on the grassy parts, but oh, no! the lake was closed!  There was lots of water in it, but they wouldn't let us go in the water.  I was sooooo disappointed.  I tried to run with the other dogs on the grass, but it wasn't the same.  I just came back and sat with Mom and Dad in the shade.  What good is a park with a lake if you can't swim in the lake?  This is the worstest dog park in the world.

And Mom was a little nervous, 'cuz she'd dragged Dad all the way here and then we weren't going to stay very long because there was no lake to play in.  But Dad just said, "Oh, well, that's too bad."  Easy for him to say.  He couldn't swim in the lake anyway.  Only I could swim in the lake and I couldn't swim in the lake.  (Did that make sense?  Maybe that didn't make sense.)  But so we headed back to the car.

But then, Mom saved the day!  Good ol' Mom, she's always thinking.  See, not far from the car was a fire hydrant.  No, I didn't need to pee on the fire hydrant.  This was a really special fire hydrant.  It was open and flowing water into a little pool around the hydrant.  It was just big enough for me to do my Famous Signature Flop!

Here-this is the Signature Flop:

This is the flop that made all the California people laugh when I did it in the ocean.  I guess no one does a flop like this in the ocean.  Maybe there is a reason for that.  Probably because the waves come and drown my flop!

So all was not in vain.  But I hope the Worstest Park goes back to the Bestest Park soon.

Hope your bestest park stays bestest for you!

Love G

PS.  Mom has some good books for you.  She read, Circling the Sun, by Paula McLain about Beryl Markham.  She was a Horsewoman in Nairobe, the first woman aviator to cross the Atlantic, and an all around naughty girl.  She wrote about the same time and area as the author of Out of Africa, who was also  played a large part in her book.  Very interesting.

Then she liked "Brave Girl, Quiet Girl" by Catherine Ryan Hyde about a young runaway and a mother's love.  And another one by Catherine Hyde she liked was "Stay" about a bunch of misfit people who managed to all save each other by being misfits.  I liked "Stay" because it had a couple of dogs in it.

Love, G

How did a hurt toe get to this?

 So I hurt my toe some how.  And I tried to fix it by licking it.  It did feel better when I did.  Mom told me to stop licking my paw, so I went in the other room to do it.  (Mom was born yesterday!!!   HeeHee!!)

Well, maybe not.  'Cuz pretty soon she was giving me one of those looks. (You know the one.  You've all had Moms!)   Then she made me get on the bed.  She does that when she wants to check my paws.  Then she pulls out that stupid iphone and turns on the flashlight so she can see all the nasty stuff I've been doing to my paw.  I knew I was in for it then.  I just didn't know how badly.

"Maybe, I should call the Vet," she said to Dad.  It's all red down there.  Uh, oh.  Not the Vet.  Please not that.  "It's Sunday," Dad said.  Oh goody, we're not going to the Vet if it's Sunday.  I'm good.  At least for today.

The next morning, however, I couldn't even walk on my paw.  (I probably shouldn't tell you this, but I was licking on it all night long.  That probably wasn't helping it much.  But it sure felt good while I was doing it.)

So Mom called the Vet.  Now I don't really mind the Vet.  I get lots of treats when I'm there.  The girls all love me and they coo at me and pet me and tell me how handsome I am.  So, OK.  We went to the Vet.

As usual they fawned over me and the doctor took a look at my paw.  She gave Mom a bunch of pills for me.  (I'm OK with pills.  They don't taste quite as good as treats, but they're OK.)  But then they gave her a big blue thing.  And it wasn't until we got home, that I learned what the big blue thing was.

She put it on my head so I couldn't reach my paw!  This has to be illegal!  This is puppy abuse!!  

I was embarrassed and I tried to hide:

Then I couldn't even get to my spot on the sofa!

Mom finally helped me up and she couldn't stop taking dumb pictures.  So I finally went with it and gave her my best Royalty Pose.

It's called an E-Collar for Queen Elizabeth.  But I'm going with King Edward.  I do look a bit like him here, don't I?

Hope you never had to wear an E-Collar!

Love, G

The Bestest Dog Park in Arizona!

After Mom decided I wasn't going in her stupid bathtub disguised as a swimming pool, she decided to try something else.  You see, it's really really hot here and it's hard for me to get my exercise so I can stay trim and strong.  So we went to this great dog park.

It's called Cosmo Park and it's a long way off.  We had to drive 45 minutes to get there.  It's named after the first police dog for the town of Gilbert.  Gilbert is where the park is, so that's why they used Cosmo for it's name.  It was named one of the 5 top dog parks in the country by "Dog Fancy".  That's a magazine for dogs.  I read it sometimes.  My brother Hercules had his picture in "Dog Fancy" so I know it must be a really good magazine.

Anyway, we went there because it has a lake.  A lake that's big enough you could never mistake it for a bathtub.  It was wonderful.

I met some fun puppies.  And also some obnoxious ones.  There was one little guy who was super agressive.  His owner said he was just a puppy and that was why.  But I decided to keep him in line because he was being mean to my friend, Josh.  Josh is the white dog I was playing with here.  Jake, is the one on the leash.  Mom wasn't happy with Jake's antics and so his owner put him on a leash for awhile.  Then Mom felt bad because the owner was really doing what was right and she wanted to give Jake a chance.  So Jake got off the leash.

Then Jake took off after Josh.  So I followed real close behind.  Just to make sure Josh was OK.

But they were fine together.  And pretty soon, Josh left.  So I went and met another dog named Sylvester.  He belonged to a little boy named Sam.  Sylvester & Sam.  I always like a nice alliteration, don't you?

But Sylvester was soon accosted by old Jake.  Actually, he's YOUNG Jake, since he's a puppy.  And I had to get into the water to save the day.

Luckily, they didn't go out too far.  I don't really know how to swim.  My favorite pastime in the water is to plop in 8" water and just veg.  But I did have to make sure poor Sylvester was safe from that nut case, Jake.  But I herded everybody back to shore.  I AM part Border Collie, you know.  I herd.  That's my specialty.  Or at least one of them.

After that, I was able to just veg in the water, like a really love to do.

What a GREAT dog park.  You should go there sometime.  I think you'd love it too!

Hope you have a wonderful dog park with a lake to get cool in.

Love,  G/

Mom Bought Me a Bathtub!

It's been pretty hot around here lately.  Got up to 115 degrees the other day.  Even my friends the bunny rabbits are making holes to hide in.

He really buried himself deep in there.  It made Mom think that she should buy me a swimming pool.  So she did.

Well, SHE said it was a swimming pool.  But I know what a swimming pool looks like.  We had a swimming pool back in Clayton when we lived there.  I showed you pictures of that.  Remember?

That was my friend Sophie with me.  This pool is shaped like my doggie biscuits and has lots of doggies to play with.

Mom went and bought me this thing:

 She threw a ball in it to make it look like it was fun.  Heck, SHE even went in it.  But I know better.  This is just a ruse to get me in it and then she's gonna give me a bath.  NOT DOIN' IT!

SHE can go sit in it if she wants to, but I'm not taking a bath in it.  NO WAY!  I don't care how hot it is.  Maybe if another doggie came and got in it with me, then I'd know that Mom wasn't trying to give me a bath.  But until then.....

Anyway, hope you get a real swimming pool and not a bathtub if you're in hot weather, too!

Love, G

Got my fill of NUMBERS this week!

It's been a while since I've been able to help Mom with her accounting stuff.  She's mostly been doing it on her own without my help.  But last week, Dad left some money on his dresser, so I thought I would count it for him in case he needed to know how much he had.

Unfortunately, the bills sort of came apart in my mouth.  

But notice how well I succeeded in saving the serial numbers.  That's so when Mom goes to replace the bills at the bank, she can get new ones with no problem.  She says they laugh at her at the bank.  I don't know why.  Counting money is not funny business, is it?

You might wonder why I didn't just eat the whole bunch of numbers.  But I did better than that yesterday.  This time I came across a long, long list of numbers in green, red and black.  There were tons and tons of numbers on this card.  So I ate the whole thing.  This is all Mom found of it. 

I guess if I had eaten the last bite, she might never have known that I ate her Mah Jongg card.  That's what she said it was.  She wasn't all that mad, because she said she had copied it and it wasn't the real thing.  I have a feeling, life might have been a bit nastier if I had eaten the real thing!

The problem is, while I love to get my fill of numbers, I haven't been feeling all that good lately.  I didn't eat breakfast until 4:00 this afternoon.  Maybe I'll swear off numbers for a while again.  My inner Guru says it might be a good idea.

Hope you get your fill of numbers, too.

Love, G

We've been invaded!

The other day, we were getting ready to walk up to the grocery store.  (Mom forgot to get orange juice again!)  Just before we left out the front door, we all heard a big BANG.  It sounded like something hit the side of a wall.  But we didn't see anything.

That is, until we got to the road leading to the grocery store.  Then we saw them.  A Mama Javelina and a baby were right next to our west wall.  It looked like they were trying to dig a hole to snuggle in.  (In our part of the world, they snuggle into deep holes to keep cool.  Where I used to live, we snuggled together to stay warm.  It's a funny world.)  They must have bumped the wall making the huge BANG.

Anyway, we saw the two of them trying to make a home in our yard. 

Mom got some good pictures before Dad decided he didn't want them making a home in our yard.  He picked up a stone to throw towards them.  He said he wasn't going to hurt them, just scare them away.

But I wouldn't let him do that.  And probably not for the reason you're thinking.  (Yes I'm a very caring puppy, but there was another very good reason for him not to do it.)

I barked to get his attention, and Mom saw what I saw.  Right near the cross street was Papa Javelina with two babies and a teenager.  He was staring right at Dad.  I think he would have stormed the fort if Dad had thrown the stone.

Mom encouraged Dad to walk away slowly and we continued on to the grocery store.  She decided not to try to get pictures of Papa Javelina while he was so mad.  That's why I don't have any good pictures of him.  Mom wouldn't make a very good reporter.  Good reporters take more risks that that.

When we got back, they were all gone.  The only thing they left was a hole in the ground.  Oh, and a gnawed off root on one of the cacti.  (That's the plural for a cactus.  I tried cactuses, but it sounded funny, so I looked it up and it's really cacti.  Put that in your Dictionary!)

I haven't seen the javelinas since.  I hope they found someplace to stay cool.  It's pretty hot around here and they have very heavy coats.  (And rather large teeth!)

Hope your home doesn't get invaded by javelinas.  Or if it does, I hope they are the friendly kind.

Love, G