Not a Good Start to the New Year!

 I think I may have overdone it on New Year's Eve.  Mom and Dad went out for an outdoor dinner but I couldn't come.  Which was just as well.  Do you know how cold it was last night?  It was 50 degrees out there!  I'll take the comfy warmth of my own house thank you very much.

But I guess I partied too hard, cuz this is what Mom and Dad found when they came home.

I went to bed way before midnight.

When we got up on Friday, I still had a headache when we went out for a walk.  Probably why I was feeling cratchetty (is that a word?  If not it should be!), and then went and did this:

You can see why I was feeling cratchetty!

On our way home, though, something fantastic happened.  We were standing on the walkway, and a beautiful coyote went flying across the walk not 2 feet in front of us.  And another one followed him flying into the wash.  I wanted to follow them, but Mom made be stop and be quiet.  There was another coyote in the bushes.  He came out and looked at us.  Mom pointed her arm towards the wash and said, "They went that way!".  And the beautiful coyote rushed into the wash after his friends.  (I didn't know Mom spoke Coyote.)  I wish they would stop and spend some time to talk to me.  They look so much like me except their colors.  

Anyway, I think that was a sign that 2021 will be a good year.  And I went home to sleep on that.

 Happy New Year!  Hope your 2021 is the best ever!

Love, G

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