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

Am I Weird or Is It Them?

 Mom and Dad think I do strange things.  Lots and lots and lots of strange things.  But I don't think they're so strange.  I think they are absolutely positively normal.

I'm just going to give you a few of the things in this post.  (In case you think they're strange, too, I wouldn't want you to get the opinion that I am a complete weirdo - so I think I'll save a few for later, OK?)

Anyway, the first thing they always tell people about is this:  Guinness doesn't go to the bathroom in his own backyard.  

That's right.  I don't!  In fact, I make it a habit not to do anything until we are at least two houses past my own.  Even if it's raining out and we have to walk all the way to the Green Spots in the rain.  Well, I don't like the rain either so sometimes I make Mom put us in the car to take me to a Green Spot.  Even then, I might not get out of the car right away.  She has had to drag me out!

And sometimes if they get home late, they still have to take me out.  Cuz, I can hold it a really really really long time, but I do have my limits.  So if it's late and dark out, Mom and Dad take me out together.  Mom brings a flashlight and shines it around in case there are javelinas, or coyotes or bobcats.  I don't think the snakes are out at night.  At least we haven't  seen any yet.  And sometimes if its really really really dark, we'll all go in the car to the Green Spot where they can park the car facing the grass and turn on the headlights.  Then I get to go with the headlights directly on me -- just like if I was in the movies!

And in the summer when you can fry an egg on the sidewalk, it isn't fun to walk to the Green Spots.  It burns my feet.  Mom goes out in front of the house and stands with her bare feet on the asphalt to see if it's too hot for me.  (Now who is being really really really weird?)  If it is too hot we use the car.  Or if Dad has the car, I get to wear those fun Booties.  Remember the Booties?  

OK, once I did go out in the backyard.  That was when I was feeling really really really bad and it was in the middle of the night.  I stared at Mom (like I do when I want her to do something) and she woke up and knew right away what I needed.  

This is me telling Mom what I want her to do!

You'd understand that look wouldn't you?

So she let me out and I did a gooey number.  But I felt a lot better after that.  But that was the only time.

Well, not really.  I confess when my friend Sutter was here, he went out in the back yard.  I wasn't going to let him pee and poop in my back yard if I didn't.  So I did.  But when he left I stopped.

Here's why I think I'm being perfectly normal.  Dogs do not like to mess in their homes.  That's why you're supposed to potty train a dog by using a crate.  Then they don't mess in their crate and they wait till you take them out where they are supposed to go.  

I'm have a very expansive view of the world.  The whole house and yard are my home.  I won't mess any where near my home.  Is that so weird?  No.  It's just me.  So live with it!

Well, actually, they have lived with it for almost 9 years.  So I'm not complaining.  They can laugh at me for being weird and I'll just laugh back at them.

So maybe that's enough weirdness for one blog.

Hope your weirdness is a lovable one, too!

Love, G