Guinness & His Family Wish You a Merry Christmas

As you know, I am a part-time poet, having accidentally made some words rhyme.  So I decided to send you a poem I made up about me for Christmas.  Ready?

Guinness the Red-Bowed Rescue

Had a very cheery bow.

And if you ever saw it.

You would laugh and say, "HO! HO!"

All of the other Doggies

Used to laugh and call him names.

They never let poor Guinness,

Join in any Doggie games.

Then one freezing Christmas Day,

Santa came to say,

"Guinness with your Heart so Warm,

Won't you steer us through this storm?"

Then how the Doggies loved him.

As they shouted out with glee,

"Guinness the Red-Bowed Rescue,

You'll go down in history!"

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Diwali or Kwanzaa or whatever holiday you celebrate around this time of year.  But mostly may you have laughter and joy throughout the New Year!

Love G & Family

In which I run a Dog Show!

 Well, maybe that's a bit of overstatement.  Actually, I went to the Scottsdale Dog Fancier's "Fiesta Dog Show" at Westworld in Scottsdale.  I was a representative for ATD (Alliance of Therapy Dogs.)  My job was to encourage dog owners to get involved with their dogs as Therapy Teams.  

I have to say, I have never seen so many different kinds of dogs.  (I think some of them were really horses, not puppy dogs.)  I mean take a look at this guy.  They said he's an Irish Wolfhound. 

Remind me not to go to Ireland!

I watched some of the contests.  From my perfectly placed vantage point.  

I don't think Dog Shows are for me.  They made those poor dogs trot along with their owners, one right after the other.  Then all of a sudden they had to stop and w a l k   e v e r   s o   s l o w l y .  Would have driven me crazy.  But after that some of them came back with these pretty blue and gold ribbons.  Maybe I would do that if someone would give me a pretty blue and gold ribbon.  On second thought, maybe not even then.  

In any case, that was not why I was there.  I had to turn around and pay attention.

 My job meant I had to spot people who might want to know more about ATD.  And I did find some.  I also found some who just wanted to pet me.  (Good thing Mom gave me a bath just before we went -- I'm so soft after my bath!)

I was there for over two hours, and we took breaks every so often.  Nevertheless, it got a little boring for me after a while.

So Mom let me hide for a bit when no one was looking.

It was a perfect hiding place!

You should go to a Dog Show.  It was fun, and if I am there, you can come pet me anytime you want!!

Love, G 

MUFFIN TIN GAME , cont

Be sure to click on the last picture to see the YouTube of my game.  It didn't have an arrow so you might not have known to click on it.

Love, G 

MUFFIN TIN GAME Made with Clipchamp

What would you think if I came to you with this tennis ball?

You would probably think I want you to throw the ball.  Or maybe even chase me and play keep away with the ball.  But you would be wrong.  This is a game I taught Mom for inside when it was too hot to go out to play.  Here's how it works:

I bring Mom a tennis ball and drop it at her feet.

She knows it's now her turn to get a Muffin Tin and fill it up with tennis balls under which she hides treats for me.  I never know which muffin holes will have a treat but I can usually smell them and pick the ones right off that have a treat under them.

Of course, that means that some of the balls escape from the muffin tin and spread out all over the floor.  That's when it gets really fun.  'Cuz then Mom asks me to pick up the balls and put them away.  Every time I put one away, I get ANOTHER treat.

(See why this is so fun for me?  Mom calls me a Treat Whore.  I don't know what that means but it sounds pretty cool!)  Here's how I play my game:

I DO NOT LIKE MONSOON SEASON!!

 "We need rain," they keep saying.  I don't know why.  When it rains, it brings nasty stuff like thunder and lightning.  I do not see any use for things like thunder and lightning.  Do you?  What can you do with thunder?  And what can you do with lightning?  Well, maybe with lightning you can see when it's really dark out because of the rain.  But only for a quick second.

When it rains, I can't go outside.  I just watch.  

Well, I guess that's not entirely true.  I COULD go outside if I really wanted to.  In fact, Mom and Dad sometimes take me out in the car so I can do my business, but sometimes, I even refuse to get out of the car.  Mom once pushed me out.  She can be really mean!

But when the rain turns to thunder, I really really really really don't like it.  If Dad's around, I go sit with him.  

I don't tell him I'm only there 'cuz I'm ascared of the thunder, I just pretend I like to cuddle with him.  He likes that.  It works for me!

But when he's not here, then I have to find some place to hide.  One place is under the bed covers.

But then I get that claws-to-fobia thing.  You know when the blankets feel like they are closing in on you and you have to claw-to-get-out?

Once, I tried hiding in the closet.  That was kinda perfect.  I couldn't really hear the thunder too good and I didn't get claws-to-fobia. 

But the best part is when it just stops.  Then I can finally find a comfortable place to just sleep.

Hope you have a good place to hide when the thunder comes!

Love, G

IT'S MY TIME!!!

 Mom tried to post this last week with a link to my Youtube video.  It never got published.  So this time we're giving you the Youtube site, and you can copy it to find my video.  Hope it works!

It didn't work so we have to try a new Feed since Google finally eliminated a feature that they said they were going to eliminate 3 years ago, and now they finally did.  I'm not sure how all this works, so we'll just have to see what happens.  Love G

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When it gets so hot it's like walking on coals (see my last post), then soon it's time to get out of Arizona.  And that means it's time for MY vacation.

And that's what we did a few weeks ago.  We went for two weeks to a place called Newport Beach in California.  It's not real far from some of the other places we stayed, so we even visited some of our old haunts.  

This time, we stayed in a REAL hotel.  Mom said the AirBnB's were too expensive or wouldn't let me stay.  (How could anyone not let me stay?)  Anyway, she said I had to pretend I was only 50 pounds.  That's actually easy, 'cuz I'm so quiet and well behaved, no one notices me anyway.  So that wasn't a problem.

As usual, when we go to California, it's Wimbledon Time!  So I watched some tennis.

And we had this cool balcony.  

On Friday nights, they had a jazz concert and I could just sit out on my balcony and listen to the music.  It was wonderful. 

And since it was MY vacation, we got to eat out most every night and I got to go with!  And breakfasts too.  Of course, my favorite part was sharing the food with Mom.  She especially liked feeding me pasta noodles.  At one of the restaurants they were like 3 feet long!  Ooooh, they were so good.  She tried to get a picture, but it wasn't very good.

See, that's not really fire coming out of my mouth.  That's actually a pasta noodle, but Mom was trying to take the picture herself while feeding me at the same time.  Didn't work so well.  But it would have been worse if we asked Dad to take the picture.  So there you have it.

But my all time favorite part of the whole vacation, was Huntington Dog Beach.  I just love, love, love, love the beach.  

I get to make friends, and I get to play in the ocean.  I mean what could be better than this:

                                                       

Here is the Youtube website:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGHPO3RxUI

Hope you have a vacation just for you!

Love, G

It's MY VACATION Time

 

When it gets so hot it's like walking on coals (see my last post), then soon it's time to get out of Arizona.  And that means it's time for MY vacation.

And that's what we did a few weeks ago.  We went for two weeks to a place called Newport Beach in California.  It's not real far from some of the other places we stayed, so we even visited some of our old haunts.  

This time, we stayed in a REAL hotel.  Mom said the AirBnB's were too expensive or wouldn't let me stay.  (How could anyone not let me stay?)  Anyway, she said I had to pretend I was only 50 pounds.  That's actually easy, 'cuz I'm so quiet and well behaved, no one notices me anyway.  So that wasn't a problem.

As usual, when we go to California, it's Wimbledon Time!  So I watched some tennis.

And we had this cool balcony.  

On Friday nights, they had a jazz concert and I could just sit out on my balcony and listen to the music.  It was wonderful. 

And since it was MY vacation, we got to eat out most every night and I got to go with!  And breakfasts too.  Of course, my favorite part was sharing the food with Mom.  She especially liked feeding me pasta noodles.  At one of the restaurants they were like 3 feet long!  Ooooh, they were so good.  She tried to get a picture, but it wasn't very good.

See, that's not really fire coming out of my mouth.  That's actually a pasta noodle, but Mom was trying to take the picture herself while feeding me at the same time.  Didn't work so well.  But it would have been worse if we asked Dad to take the picture.  So there you have it.

But my all time favorite part of the whole vacation, was Huntington Dog Beach.  I just love, love, love, love the beach.  

I get to make friends, and I get to play in the ocean.  I mean what could be better than this:

                                                       

Here is the Youtube website:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGHPO3RxUI

Hope you have a vacation just for you!

Love, G

Test

 Test Blogger to Facebook

Love G

It's MY time!

Mom tried to post this last week with a link to my Youtube video.  It never got published.  So this time we're giving you the Youtube site, and you can copy it to find my video.  Hope it works!

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When it gets so hot it's like walking on coals (see my last post), then soon it's time to get out of Arizona.  And that means it's time for MY vacation.

And that's what we did a few weeks ago.  We went for two weeks to a place called Newport Beach in California.  It's not real far from some of the other places we stayed, so we even visited some of our old haunts.  

This time, we stayed in a REAL hotel.  Mom said the AirBnB's were too expensive or wouldn't let me stay.  (How could anyone not let me stay?)  Anyway, she said I had to pretend I was only 50 pounds.  That's actually easy, 'cuz I'm so quiet and well behaved, no one notices me anyway.  So that wasn't a problem.

As usual, when we go to California, it's Wimbledon Time!  So I watched some tennis.

And we had this cool balcony.  

On Friday nights, they had a jazz concert and I could just sit out on my balcony and listen to the music.  It was wonderful. 

And since it was MY vacation, we got to eat out most every night and I got to go with!  And breakfasts too.  Of course, my favorite part was sharing the food with Mom.  She especially liked feeding me pasta noodles.  At one of the restaurants they were like 3 feet long!  Ooooh, they were so good.  She tried to get a picture, but it wasn't very good.

See, that's not really fire coming out of my mouth.  That's actually a pasta noodle, but Mom was trying to take the picture herself while feeding me at the same time.  Didn't work so well.  But it would have been worse if we asked Dad to take the picture.  So there you have it.

But my all time favorite part of the whole vacation, was Huntington Dog Beach.  I just love, love, love, love the beach.  

I get to make friends, and I get to play in the ocean.  I mean what could be better than this:

                                                       

Here is the Youtube website:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKGHPO3RxUI

Hope you have a vacation just for you!

Love, G

A Walk on Hot Coals

 Well, maybe not that bad.  But it has been rather warm these days.  Mom and Dad have been getting up and out by 6:00 a.m. to take our 2 mile walk.  (Sometimes, Mom and I take a little short-cut and wait in the shade till Dad comes and picks us up).  I don't much like leaving Dad to go on by himself, but I don't mind the rest in the shade!

Even though it's been over a hundred, we're still seeing spring flowers.  Look at this one we ran across yesterday!

Really nifty, huh?   And this is even better!  My friend Bob Cat was around before today's walk.  Here he is leaving after he and I said hello.

He's one of my favorite friends.  I met a young coyote that could be a friend if Mom would let me try.  We had walked under an underpass and I saw him and stopped.  Mom always stops when I do 'cuz she figures that I see things she doesn't.  And she'd be right.  There was a little head with big ears just staring at us from a ways off.  She thought it was a jack rabbit, until he moved a little toward us.  Then she saw it was a young coyote.  I already knew that.  I wanted to go and see if he would play with me.  But she said, no, his Mom might be around and she might not like that.  So we kept going.  I do hope I see him again.  But maybe I won't recognize him if he grows up some?

When we walk, I do have to keep track of my humans. 

 Mom tells me I don't have to worry, that as long as my leash is attached, Dad will be on the other end.  But I don't believe it, so I turn around and check on them.  Mom says she saw a sculpture of a dog doing exactly that at one of the spring Celebrations of Art.  It was called, "Keeping Everyone in Line."  That's me.  I keep everyone in line.

There is something I don't like about walking at this time of year.  Besides the heat, of course.  We get these monsoons and sometimes it gets really windy and all the stuff from the trees lands on the sidewalk.  There are some spots that are so messy, I won't walk on the sidewalk.

So I just go around.  Mom laughs at me, but she should try walking on that stuff barefoot!  (I better be careful, though, she could pull out those awful Booties!)

I always end my walk with bringing in the morning paper.  (If the paper's even there.  Sometimes we are so early, we get home before the paper arrives!  But then I go and check on it periodically, and eventually, I bring it in.)

But I have to admit.  My favorite part of these hot morning walks, is the Air Conditioned tiles at the end of the walk.

Yeah, whoever invented AC was brilliant!

Hope you have good walks even if it's really really really really hot, like here!

Love, G

A Most Helpful Pup

 Mom and Dad invited some people over for dinner.  I know Mom works hard when people come for dinner.  I try to be helpful.

First I am on high alert.  If I hear a noise that sounds like someone might be coming to our house, I give a big bark and run around the house till someone checks.  (I would check myself, but I haven't figured out how to open the door.  I heard Mom talk about one of my predecessors who got out the front door because they hadn't closed it quite far enough and the wind opened it up.  My brother's name was Caesar.  Caesar got out of the house and went across a very busy street where he met a very nice woman.  She put a leash on him and tried to take him up her street to Friendship Village, where she thought he must have come from.  Apparently my brother was pretty smart and he pulled her away and back across the street so she could take him back to his own house.  She saw the open door and guessed that's where he must have come from.  Then she put him inside with a note that said, "Hope this is your dog!" and she left her phone number.  Uh-oh.  There I go off on another track again.  Sorry.  But I thought it was a fun story.  If I got out, I know where I would go.  I would go right down to the corner and turn right and right again.  That's where Mrs. Gerri and Mr. Grant live.  They would come out and give me treats!  But where was I?  Oh right.  I was making sure Mom and Dad would know when our guests would come.)  

I guess I might overdo it, 'cuz Dad gets kinda frustrated when I bark every 5 minutes or so.  So I try try try to sit quietly, but I'm so excited to see guests come to our house.  It doesn't happen a lot.  

Then when they finally get here, I try to be helpful again.  This time I put on my waiter's apron so I could help with the food distribution.

Mom doesn't actually let me help with food distribution.  I sometimes get a bit distracted and eat the food instead.  But I'm very good at sitting quietly while everyone else is eating and hoping Mom might slip me a piece of meat or even a potato.  Sometimes I get a kong toy filled with carrots and I work on that for awhile when they are all eating.  

It's nice just to have a lot of people around for dinner.  Everyone who has come so far has been so nice to me and gives me lots of pets.  I hope lots more people come over.  I'll be ready and waiting with my waiter apron!

Hope you have nice guests for dinners!

Love, G

Catching Up

So I bet you're wondering what I've been doing for the past few weeks.  It's been busy!  

Mom and Dad left me for a week to go watch basketball in Washington, DC.  I got to stay here.  It wasn't so bad.  I had nice weather.  They got snow and 20 degrees!  HAH!!

Then last month, I met the new kid on the block.  Her name is Opal and she is a powder puff.

We had fun horsing around.  (Which is a funny word for two pups having fun)  Opal is only like 6 months old.  Why do the young ones like to chew on my ears so much?

Last week was the Masters.  Dad and I like to watch the Masters.  So we watch it together.

For some reason, Dad thinks this a just a little too close together.  But I LIKE being close to him.  Especially when we watch television.

I've also been practicing my yoga.  And I want to challenge all of you to do this yoga pose I like to do.  If you can do it, then please post a picture on my blog.  I would love to see how well you all do.  I call it the FROG pose and it's very relaxing.  At least for me.

That about brings us up to date.  My Aunties from all over the US came to visit and they took a lot of pictures, but they didn't take any of me, so I'm not going to talk much about my Aunties' visit!

Hope you've been doing some fun things these days.

Love, G

OK, Now this really IS weird!

 I saved the weirdest for last.  At least Mom and Dad think it's pretty weird.  And I have to admit that it's kind of evolved over time.  It started out as a game, but then I just couldn't stop.  It has to do with my sleeping habits.  Or rather my location for sleeping.  

You see, I get to sleep pretty much anywhere that I want.  The big bed with Mom and Dad, the living room couch with Dad, the leather couch in the piano room, the guest bed in the 2nd bedroom and sometimes I sleep on the carpet in the third bedroom.  But it is a long and complicated process and depends on the time of day and whether it's a nap or a night sleep.  

So let's start with the morning.

We all go out in the morning and then we have breakfast.  A little later, Dad decides he needs a morning nap.  So as soon as he heads to the bedroom, I follow.  And I jump on the bed and I stay with him for his full nap.  

Sometimes, I can get him to come in for an afternoon nap as well.  I just hop up on the bed and wait and sometimes he comes in and we have another snooze. 

Sometimes though, especially in the afternoon, he's been known to hog the entire bed.  Then I sleep at the foot of the bed.  Close but so he doesn't turn over and smother me. 

At night, is the fun time.  I play a game.  Sometimes I play with Dad and sometimes with Mom.  So sometimes I jump up on Dad's side.  When he comes to get into the bed, I pretend I don't see him.  He begs and cajoles and begs some more.  When he starts pushing, I know he's serious, so I get on the bottom of the bed on Mom's side.  She lets me stay there even when she climbs into bed.  

Sometimes, though, I play with Mom.  Then I get on her side of the bed.  She thinks its fun.  She usually climbs in right next to me and we lie lengthwise down the bed.  I can't do that with Dad, but I can with Mom.  

After all these shenanigans, I wait until the lights go out.  Then I wait until I think they are both asleep.  Then I jump off the bed and go on my doggie bed, or maybe I go to one of the back bedrooms, or maybe I go to the couch.  Sometimes I come back and climb into my doggie bed.  Sometimes, Mom sees me and she lets me up.

But here is where the weirdest part is.  Whenever I come in to get back up on the bed, Mom has to get out and go into the bathroom.  If she doesn't, I won't get on the bed.  So she sighs, and gets out of bed and goes into the bathroom.  I follow to make sure she's in there, and then I get up on the bed.  Then I let her come back and climb back into bed with me.  

We've been doing these things for a long time.  They call me weird.  I think it's them!

Hope you have lots of comfortable places to sleep!

Love, G

More Wierdo Stuff

 Wow!  I can't believe Mom let a whole month go by without posting in the blog.  She's been doing stupid stuff like making new curtains and moving furniture around.  Did you know she got rid of my big red couch and chair?

That was my Christmas picture chair.  Remember?  Well maybe you don't.  But I spent many a night on that red couch and chair.  How could she?  Without even asking me!  She says as soon as they deliver the new chair for the TV room, I can have the big leather chair all to myself.  I can't wait!

Anyway, where was I?  Oh, yes, the subject of this post.  I thought I should continue with the weird things my humans think that I do.

This week, we'll focus on my Javelina Fetish (as Mom calls it).  

When we take a walk, I am always always always on the lookout (no, that's the wrong word -- 'cuz it's the smell that I look out for and I really can't look for a smell, cuz I can't see a smell.    So maybe the word is smell-out?)  I'm always on the smell-out for the odor of javelinas.  In case you don't know, javelinas smell really really really bad.  So it's easy to smell where they've been for the last week or so.  

Yesterday, we went out and Mom was angry because there was a big hole next to one of our cactuses.  (No, cacti.  Or is it a girl cactus and it's cactae?  Whatever.)  With our really pretty agave cactus, we had to put big ol' rocks all around it so the javelinas wouldn't dig in and eat up the roots.  You remember when they ate the whole plant in my neighbors garden?  And then when they replanted it, the javelinas came back and ate the new plant.  Now there is a big ol' rock there and no plants.  Hee, hee.  That'll show those hungry javelinas!

Anyway, I just love to hunt javelinas.  I can tell when they've been around.  Mom says she can tell when I have a javelina smell up my nose.  She says I get tense and stare out at the last place I saw a javelina as if they might appear again right there!  Well, they might!

Last evening, we went to the mailbox and right after we passed the wash (that's a bunch of dirt and old wood and dead cactus that let's the water go through so it doesn't flood our houses.)  Know how many times there has been water in our wash?  Uno!  In eleven years.  But when it did get full it was scary.  It came all of a sudden and the whole wash was full.  I'm glad no animals were in the wash at the time, cuz they would have been smooshed!  

Uh, oh.  I forgot what my point was.  Was it washes?  No, it was when we passed the wash and all of a sudden I stopped short because there was Mama Javelina and she stopped 6 inches from my nose.  She froze.  I froze.  Mom froze.  Then we all started running in opposite directions.  ('cept I was attached to a leash, so I had to quick turn and run with Mom.)  Right after that, Daddy Javelina showed up with the little ones and they all ran off into the wash.  It was a little scary and Mom made us go home without the mail. 

But I wish we could have stayed and tried to make friends with the Javelina family.  I think we could get along pretty well.

But the next day, we saw Mama Javelina and the kids on the porch of one of our neighbors.

 I stopped quick to see if Mom would let us go say hello.  But she made me stay put and she got to get a picture of her.  How come Mom gets to take pictures, but I don't get to play with them.  

One day, I'm going to be off my leash when we see a javelina and I'm going to go right over and say hello and see if they want to play with me.  But until then, I keep sniffing the ground where they've been and Mom and Dad just laugh at me.  Just wait!

Hope people don't think you are a weirdo just because you want to make friends with someone who is not just like you and who might just be a little bit scary.

Love, G