ThomCat

So Mom and Dad went to some place called TooSan.  I don't know where that is, but they went to play golf.  As usual.  Without me. 

But my dog sitter came and got me after they left and took me to her house.  I didn't know she was coming to get me.  She always comes to me when Mom and Dad go away without me.  How does she know?  Can she tell I'm getting lonely?  I don't know.  But she was there and she brought me to her house.  And that made me happy. 

I've been to her house a couple of times.  She has lots of toys for me that she keeps really neat.  See she even puts them in a basket.  I go and get them out to play with, but I don't put them back.  Is that rude, do you think?  I probably should do that next time.

But the most interesting toy at her house is this:

She calls it, ThomCat.  ThomCat walks on four paws, just like me.  But he's not really like me.  And he's not like my puppy pals.  I mean, just look at what he's doing!  If I got up on a table like that, you can bet your bottom bitcoin I'd get yelled at.  (Did you like that?  "Bottom BitCoin?"  I just made it up.)

I'm very polite to ThomCat.  But I don't play with him like I do my puppy pals.  In fact, I usually keep my distance. 

Mostly, 'cuz I don't really get him.  I once did my puppy play dance and asked him to play with me.  He just walked away.  What was that about? 

There's something about him though that reminds me of some one I know.  I'm trying to remember who it was?  Wait.  I know.  It was Bob Kat.  He looks like a miniature Bob Kat.  I haven't seen Bob Kat in a really long time.  I wonder if ThomCat knows him?  Maybe he can tell me where Bob Kat is.   I'm going to ask him next time I see him.  Which will probably be when Mom and Dad leave me again to go play golf somewhere I've never been to. 

I think ThomCat and I will be good friends after a while.  We just need to know each other better.  Maybe I'll ask Mom and Dad to get me a toy like ThomCat.  If I had my own, I might understand him better and then ThomCat and I could play like my puppy pals.

Hope you have your own ThomCat if you don't have a puppy like me!

Love, G

I had a job interview!

Wooof-eee!  I finally have a job!  It's going to be HUUUUGE!  Here's what happened.

Friday, Mom and me (oops, I mean Mom and I, or is it I and Mom? no, it's Mom and I) went to a school in Central Phoenix.  It's a school where kids need extra help.  And I'm supposed to be the extra help. 

We talked to a nice lady who is a Social Worker.  I think that someone who works with things like my blog and Facebook and Twitter and stuff.  So anyway, she liked my blog (and I think she really liked me, too.  I can tell)  Mom and Patti (the gal we met from Gabriel's Angels) and me and the Social Worker all had a very productive conversation about how I could help these kids.  There's going to be a group of 6 or so that will be MY group.  I said I would like the kids to be a little older, maybe around 9 or 10.  Just 'cuz, I can be kinda scary for the really little ones.  Even though I'm real gentle with them.  I'm almost as big as most of them.   So I decided to go a little older.  Every one agreed with me. 

So then we toured the school and met some of the kids.  There were a group of little girls working with their new Laptops.  They all looked like sisters, 'cuz they all had on the same shirts, and they all had pretty long brown hair.  Mom let me go over and nuzzle them a little.  They petted me and cooed over me.  One of them even took a picture of me on her laptop.  But she had to do a selfie 'cuz she couldn't figure out how to make the camera turn around.  It was so fun.

Then we went in a classroom where one of the boys was not being very good.  I went over and rubbed his leg and he petted me too and pretty soon he was being a good boy.  I think that's what I'm supposed to do.  Help them be happy and good.  This will be fun.

I don't start work until next October.  We will be going back to St. Louis pretty soon and the kids will be out of school for a few months.  It will give me time to think of some activities we can do together.  I'm really looking forward to it.  And while I'm in St. Louis, I'm going to be looking for opportunities to be a therapy dog there, too.  Let me know if you know of any.  (I heard in Tucson that they have Therapy Dogs for the Law Students when they were taking their exams!  That would have been cool, but I didn't hear about it until after they graduated.)

I also like that I can wear my new Gabriel's Angels vest when I go to work.  Wanna see?

It's pretty Rad, don't you think? 

I best be getting to sleep.  As the only working member of this family, I have to keep my energy up.

Love, G

Circle of Bones

 For those of you who know my Mom, you know that she is into this mumbo jumbo time travel in Scotland.  You know, where they go through some old stones and end up in the year 1747 with a guy named Jamie and a gal named Claire?  I think there is a book called "Outlander" and it was written by Diana Gabaldon who lives here is Scottsdale and sells her books at a store called the "Poisoned Pen."  (I really like that name!  Imagine what you could do with a poisoned pen -- "Take that! you nasty Rattle Snake" and then you stick him with your poisoned pen!  That would be real fun.  Uh oh, I'm doing that digressing thing again.

Anyway, mom went to the Poisoned Pen and met this Mrs. Gabaldon.  Lots of people were buying books and having her sign them.  Mom brought her Scotland photo book instead and had her sign the page where she was hiding in the magic stones that let you time travel.  She thought that was cool.

So I decided to have some fun with Mom.  We have stones outside that are in a circle.  They look like this:

But I went and filled the circle with my bones. 

When mom came out later, I chased her around the yard like I sometimes do, and she jumped when she saw my "Circle of Bones".

(They look really eerie, don't they?  I wonder where you can travel if you use bones instead of stones?  Maybe I could go meet dogs in old Egypt.  Or maybe the bones would come alive and they would be big mean cows!  I don't think I would like that.)

 

After mom stopped being surprised, she asked me if I had put the bones there.  I said no, but I don't think she believed me.  Why do you think she wouldn't believe me?

 

Thank you to those of you who sent me comments.  There aren't a lot of them.  Maybe no one is reading my blogs anymore.  I need to see if I can get more people to read my blogs.  It's more fun when lots of people read my blogs.

Stay away from magic stones if you want to stay in 2016.

Love, G

 



Am I Spoiled?

I need to apologize for my Mom.  She's been awful busy lately and just didn't have time to do my blog last week.  (Did you notice that I didn't appear in your email last week?)  She said she might have to go another week, but I couldn't let her do that.  We have to be consistent, I told her.  She threw up her hands and told me to do it myself then!

So I am.  I've decided to do a survey because I keep hearing complaints that I am a spoiled puppy.  And I don't really think I am.  Sure there are reasons to think that I may be slightly (only slightly) spoiled.  For example, I have my very own water fountain.  And all I have to do is look adoringly and the water flows into the bowl so I can drink it.

 

And I guess it's pretty special that I have my own back yard to sunbathe in.

 

 

And there probably aren't a lot of puppies that get to cuddle with their Dad on the sofa.

 

 

Some might even think that the fact that I get a dollop of whipped cream whenever mom makes tea for Dad is perhaps over the top.

 

 

Let's not forget, however, all of the many things I do to deserve this special treatment.  For instance, I get the newspaper every day.  Come rain or shine.  ('Cept there hasn't been any rain since I started getting the paper.)

 

And I go to the doctor and follow my diet when mom says I should.

And I try to stay healthy by doing my yoga exercises every chance I get.

And here I am doing mom's blog for her.  I don't think I am a spoiled dog.  I think I get my due.  Don't you?

I wish you would vote on the comments section of my blog and say whether you think I am spoiled or not.  I'm trying to get my readers to use my comments section so I can see if it works. 

Thanks for your vote.

Love, G



 



 

 

 

 

AAAAA-CHOOOOOO!!!

Guess what?  I have allergies.  Actually I don't sneeze that much.  I scratch.  And scratch.  Until something gets pretty red and then Mom gets weird.  She calls the vet. 

I really wish she wouldn't call the vet.  'Cuz then she always end up bringing me in.  I do not like the vet.  The last time she brought me to the vet, she left me there for a long time.  They gave me a bath and trimmed my toe nails and brushed my teeth and made me sit while they used a hair dryer on me.  (She wanted me to be clean for the Alzheimer patients when I was doing my Therapy testing.)  That's foo-foo stuff.  I don't like it.  And I don't like being at the vet.

When we got there this time, I tried to run back out the front door.  Didn't work.  They were on to me.  They put me in a room and shut the door.

The room was kinda cute, actually.  There was a bulletin board with my name on it.

"Welcome, Guinness."  That's me - Guinness.  But you knew that.  I didn't much like the poster next to it.  Did you know that dogs can get Valley Fever?  Do you know what Valley Fever is?  Me neither.  But I don't think I have it.

I looked around to see what else was in the room.  (There might just be a way out.)  I found a television. 

The television wasn't on.  That would have been nice to have the television on.  I could maybe watch some shows and not think about all the awful things that could happen in that room. 






There were also some neat pictures on the walls.  I really liked these:

I didn't so much like this one.  (I think my Auntie Deb the Dentist would like it a whole lot!)

 

 

After surveying the walls.  I decided to find a way to escape. 

 

 

To start with, the door was big.  And I don't know how to open doors anyway.  (You might remember my blog about Doggie Doors?    Doggie Doors    This door wasn't any easier.

 

 

 

Then I thought.  Maybe, if I back away and look the other way, someone might open the door and I could rush the door and escape!

 

  Shoot, not happenin'!

 

Well, I finally DID get out.  But not after a bunch of poking and probing.  And they weighed me again.  63.6 pounds.  Mom's putting me on a diet again.  I've just GOT to figure out how to stop going to the vet!

 

Any ideas?

 

Love, G.

 

ARIZONA SPRING

Last week I introduced you to Blue and showed you the neat pictures of the cactus blooming.  'Member?  Course you do.  It was just last week.

Anyway, I decided it would be a good idea to introduce you to Arizona in the spring.  It's really pretty.  I'll even try to give you a lesson on the Fauna of Arizona.  (That's the flowers in case you didn't know.)

So let's start with the one from last week.  And here is another picture of it a week later:

 

This is called an Argentine Giant Cactus.  Which I don't get.  There are a lot of cacti (that's plural for more than one cactus.  Latin stuff.  I never took Latin.  In fact I never took any language.  Uh, oh.  I'm doing that digressing thing again.  Sorry.)  Anyway, why is this a GIANT cactus?  It's pretty small compared to some cactus I've seen.  And this is not Argentina, either.  So how can this be an Argentine Cactus?  It needs a better name.  I'm going to call this cactus:  Very Pretty White Blooming Cactus. 

 

Now let me take you on a tour of some of the Flora around my house. 

 

These yellow plants are called Yucca Plants. 



 I can't be sure.  But I think it's because they are not as pretty as most of the other flora.  So they are sort of Yuccky.  So someone decided to make Yuccky sound like it was Latin, too.  Yes I'm sure that's how it got called Yucca.

Then we have the Ocotillo plants.  They have pretty red flowers right at the tips of these really long spindly branches.  Most of the year they just look long and spindly.  But in spring they look like they have little red birds on the ends of the branches. 

 

In Spanish, Ocotillo means little pine tree.  As you can see, this is as bad a name for it as the Argentine Giant Cactus.  Does that look like a little pine tree to you?  Sometimes it is called a Flaming Sword.  That makes much more sense.  So I'm going with Flaming Sword.

 

 

Now this is a Prickly Pear Orange.  I can deal with that.  This little cactus is definitely prickly.  The leaves are kinda pear shaped.  And no one can argue that the blooms are orange.  I'll let this one be called a Prickly Pear Orange.



 

This next one is called Pretty Blue Flower.  (I'm kidding.  I have no idea what it's really called, but it is a pretty blue flower, don't you think?  Let's go with that.)

 

 

Can you guess this next one?  If you guessed Prickly Pear Yellow, you'd be right.  Pretty easy, no?

 

 

Now this is an Orange Lantana.  What the heck is a Lantana you might ask?  I have no clue.  It's latin for a tree that's supposed so look like this plant.  (Also, in case you wonder why I was looking the other way?  I was getting kinda tired of posing beside each plant.  Is there really a need for me to be in every picture?)

 

 

 

 

Now this one is my favorite for two reasons.  One, it's really colorful.  And two, it's called a Purple Prickly Pear with Yellow Flowers.  A plant that looks just like it's name!  What a novel idea.  

 

 

There are a ton more lovely plants in my neighborhood.  You should come and see them.    We do have a guest room.  (Although I usually use it to spy on the neighbors.  But there's room for all of us if you come visit!)

 

 

Hope you have a lovely spring soon, too.

 

Love, G

 

 

Oh, what a night!

Only it's not late September, it's early April and the weather is beautiful and the flowers are blooming and I met a new friend and so did Mom.  (I think that's too many words without breathing.)

Anyway, here's what happened.  Mom and me (no that's Mom and I), we went out after dinner - just to our little park up the street.  There was this gal taking pictures of flowers and she had a puppy with her.  So we stopped.

Mom was amazed at the flowers, 'cuz just this morning, they looked like this:

 

I remember her saying, "I wonder what these will look like when they open?"  Well they look like this:

 



 

Aren't they just beautiful?  (And you might be thinking that these are better pictures than Mom usually takes and you'd be right.  These are pictures that the gal we met took and then she emailed them to Mom.)  

And best of all, I really liked her puppy.  His name is Blue.  That's because he is an Australian Blue Heeler.  At least, I think so.  He's not as old as me.  So we can't go drinking together.  Not yet, anyway.  But we had lots of fun.  We rolled around and wrestled and played.

 

 

I had to be careful, 'cuz I never knew when he might get me by surprise, so I kept an eye on him.         

 

And in the end, I let Blue be the winner 'cuz I want to play with him again.  Lots of times if we can!

 

 

Mom and me (I mean and I) finally went home after Blue's Mom promised to send pictures.  (She said she's not really Blue's Mom, just a friend.  But Blue told me she's as nice as Blue's Mom and my Mom likes her and that's good enough for me.)

 

So all in all, it was a really good evening in Paradise.

 

Love, G