Relatives

Recently a new member was added to our family. Our humans, Katie and Todd, have now increased their family with one Australian bulldog by the name of Bruiser.
For a long time we were not allowed to meet him because he was just a baby and hadn't even had all his shots yet.  Apparently, until one has had all ones' shots one must avoid the company of other dogs.
A couple of weeks ago, however, Bruiser was brought over to meet us.  What a strange person he is!

He is like a little barrel with a curly tail and a squished up face.  He likes to swim, so his humans have provided him with a swimming pool. He lies in there on these hot summer days.  Am sorta jealous of that....I wonder if Santa might bring me a swimming pool?

Also he can skateboard.  This impresses me. I don't believe I am genetically suited to skateboarding because of my long legs. I think I would end up in a tangle but Bruiser just jumps on and off he goes....zoom.

He has one annoying habit, however; he likes to run under me.

I don't like it.

One minute I can see him and the next minute he is gone and then he pops up behind me.  Grrr!
All I can do is jump!  High!  Straight up! It's very annoying!

Heidi thinks it's hilarious. She runs around barking and that makes Bruiser all hyped up and then he starts zipping round, in and out and through my legs. Grr!

But, it seems he is family so what can one do?

Christmas is here again.

As you can see we are helping Mum make the house ready for Santa to come. There is a lot of shiny tinsel and lots of Christmas balls and, of course, the special tree.

Mum has delivered the annual Christmas lecture about the "Rules pertaining to Christmas Trees" complete with the associated by-laws which relate to parcels and dangly ornaments.
We paid strict attention to this lecture because we want Santa to know what good dogs we are. Last year we must have been amazingly good because at Christmas time we received an absolute bonanza of goodies.  I am still chewing on the remains of an enormous doggy candy cane that the Big Man brought for me.  I keep it out in the yard because Mum won't let me bring it in. She claims to be offended by its delicious aroma.

So, here we are being reindeer.  Heidi doesn't mind wearing the stupid glittery horns but I allowed myself to be photographed and then swiftly removed them. Dad suggested Mum put the glittery angel's halo on me but she said that would give the world a false impression of my personality. Huh? I don't understand that comment.


We have a tradition in our family that everyone has a Christmas ball with his or her name on it. They hang on tinsel near the stockings. This year we have added a new one for our new cousin, Bruiser.  He is a bulldog person who has a tendency to run underneath me causing me to perform my world famous vertical leap.  Dad says I am like an elephant with a mouse. I don't understand that comment either.

Anyway now the Christmas tree is standing in the corner of the lounge room looking beautiful (and out of bounds) and Mum has moved on to the family room with her decorations box.  Dad has decided it is time for lunch so, while he organises some food, which he will (hopefully) generously share with us, we are taking the opportunity to have a play.

Summertime

Summertime where we live is hot and sticky and stormy.

We don't mind the hot days because have the machine on the wall that keeps us cool.  Mum says if we didn't have that machine, we would have to pack up and move to the cool side of the world every summer.
Hmm.  Could be interesting, I suppose.

Summertime is also when Christmas happens.  We like Christmas even though there are a lot of rules to be followed concerning Christmas trees and parcels. Christmas means lots of visitors and treats.  Christmas is a good thing.

But, the thing we don't like about summertime is the storms.....big, loud, flashing, crashing, scary storms.  Heidi just abandons everything and goes to hide.  Her preferred hiding spot is the walk in wardrobe in Mum's bedroom but Mum has become very quick in closing the door and diverting Heidi to the garage where our cubby crates are.

Over the weekend we had the biggest, loudest, flashiest, crashingest, scariest storms ever.  They started in the morning and went on and on and on.  At first there was just the thunder....boom, rumble, rumble, boom.  That was enough for HoHo.  She was off! She tucked her tail under and raced off down the hall towards Mum's bedroom.  However, in a brilliant piece of double-teaming, the humans foiled her plan. Dad appeared out of nowhere...well, actually, out of the bathroom....and slowed Heidi down, giving Mum time to get ahead of her and close the door.  Rats!  Plan B!  Zoom!  Off to the cubby.  Safe and sound, she stayed in there for the rest of the day, only emerging for dinner and an extremely quick bathroom break. So it was all up to me...again.

Now, in circumstances such as these, I feel it to be my duty to stay as close as possible to Mum and Dad to take care of them.  I think that if I sit on them or, at the very least, sit beside them, they are going to be safe through the storm. I am prepared to cuddle with them as long as it takes to make them feel secure.  You should feel the shuddering and shivering! Someone is very scared.
So, on Saturday, that's what I did. I sat with Dad for a while and then I sat with Mum for a while. If either of them moved I went with them.  There was no way they were going to be alone while those storms were crashing and flashing. Gee, I am a brave dog.  I did have to take a dinner break and a bathroom break (made Mum come out with me for that...with an umbrella) but I guarded them both for hours and hours.

And then....when the storms had moved away and everything had calmed down and Heidi had boldly gone out for the quickest bathroom visit on record, Mum and Dad decided it was time for everyone to go to bed.  So while Dad was in the bathroom, I thought it was only fair that I have some sort of trophy for my exceptional protective display.  I "borrowed" a pair of socks from the washing basket....(ha! they think they can hide things in there)...and took them to my cubby crate.  Tee hee.

Mum found them this morning.  She gave me "the look" that means I could be in trouble, but then she just said, "Oh, Trudy," and took them back to the washing basket.  I guess that means she's glad to have me here to take care of her.

Home again.

Well, we have been back home now for several days and everything is back to normal.  We were extra specially good for a few days just to make sure we didn't get sent back to Kennel.  Not that Kennel is a bad place....it just isn't home.  Home has Mum and Dad and schmackos and our cubby house beds and our toys and Otto the Rat next door and lots of normal smells that just aren't there at Kennel.  We are very relaxed and happy.

BUT......this morning a big box arrived with Post Office Man. It is in the hall. Mum hasn't opened it yet.  Heidi read the writing on it.  (Heidi is a very talented dog.).  It says DOG CRATE.  What the....?
What do we need a dog crate for?   We have our dog cubbies already. They are very comfortable and are great places to hide away when the nasty storms come round.  Mine is ever so slightly shredded in the front. You see, I got a bit frightened by a lightning storm and had to rip into something to release my fear......but it's still good....nothing that would warrant a DOG CRATE!!

Stand by for more information.  I am off to try to open that box.

Prisoners

Once again we are prisoners at Kennel.  Miss Jeanette and Miss Angela are taking care of us and Mr Paul even popped in to give us our manners lesson but we are still prisoners in our 'family suite'.

Mum and Dad have disappeared off with their suitcases to somewhere called Ha Why Ee.

 I don't know when they are coming back to get us. I don't know why we can't go with them when they get the suitcases out. I don't know how they could possibly be happy to go anywhere without Heidi and me. I don't know why Miss Jeanette won't let us go into her house at night. I don't know why Joe the greyhound can run so fast when we are allowed to go into the play yard.  I don't know why Mr Paul thinks I am such a good dog when I come back the first time he calls me.  I don't know why Heidi refuses to do the 'Down' thing when Mr Paul tells her to.

It seems that although I am very wise on many issues there are a lot of things that I don't know.  Perhaps if I was allowed to go to Ha Why Ee I would learn some more things.  Must remember to mention this to Mum and Dad when they come back.

Prisoners Numbers  G1 and G2, (don't know what this means either), signing off for now. Woof!

Special Duty

Dad sat us down this morning and told us we were on special duty this weekend.

You see, he has gone away to Golf. He goes there most Sundays but this time he is going to Golf for three whole days.  This means that we have to take care of Mum. Dad said so.
"Trudy,' he said. 'I want you to look after your Mum for me.'

So Heidi and I are taking our duties very seriously.  Where Mum goes, we go.
This afternoon when there was some thunder, I made sure she was safe by sitting on her lap so that she felt safe.  I am sure she appreciated my efforts because she didn't try to push me off.

I tried to look after her while she was in the shower by sitting in the bathroom doorway but she said my attentions were not required. I shall report this to Dad when he comes home. How am I supposed to take care of her if she is going to be difficult about it? Heidi says that there is no accounting for the perverse natures of humans.  I think she may be correct.

Dinner was managed fairly easily. We were served at the appropriate time and then, Mum made herself some ravioli. We watched over her carefully while she ate it without sharing...some silly nonsense about tomato and garlic not being good for dogs.  Now we are enjoying tea and biscuits together.....well, she has the tea and we have had a biscuit each.

Heidi is trying to convince Mum that it would be best if we slept in the big bed with her tonight but Mum is resisting this offer.  Again...no accounting for perversity.  This too shall be reported to Dad.

He called us earlier and Mum told him we were doing a good job....then she told him about the hole I found in the backyard that required digging, the tarpaulin that I found that needed ripping up, the old rubber thong that Heidi took into her nest behind the palm tree and a couple of other minor indiscretions that had occurred today.

All in all I think that we are carrying out our special duties extremely well. Dad will be really pleased with us.  I am expecting a nice big juicy bone on Sunday night when he comes home.

The calm position

On Friday morning right after Schmackos we had a visitor. His name was Mr Paul.  We had never met him before but he came right into our house and sat down at the kitchen table.
Mum and Dad sat down too and they had a big talk with Mr Paul.
Heidi hid....of course...so it was up to me to find out what was going on.  I went over to Mr Paul and put my head on his leg so that he would be impressed by my friendly nature and give me a pat. He did but he also put a lead on me.
Excellent! I thought. We're going for a walk.  
Heidi came running in because she wanted to go for a walk too but it was all a trick.  We weren't going for a walk at all.

It was something called TRAINING.  Mr Paul was here to teach us something called the controlled calm position.   It involves sitting.  Nothing else.....just sitting.  When Mr Paul or Mum pull up on one's collar, one is to sit......just sit....nothing else....just sit.  I picked it very quickly but Heidi decided that she would sit when she wanted to sit not when someone else wanted her to sit. There was, after all, no bowl of dinner involved. So she took a bit longer to understand the calm position.

Today we went to the park and practiced walking a bit and then sitting....nothing else....just sitting.
People kept coming over to Mum and asking her if we were okay.....she just standing there and me sitting....just sitting.  Boy, was I ever calm!  I even sat...just sat.....when a child on a bike wobbled past me.

Mum seems pleased that we can do this new trick.  We are puzzled.  Why would she want us to be calm?  Surely all the brilliant rampaging and frenzied barking and compulsive possum stalking are far preferable to sitting....nothing else.....just sitting in a calm manner?  All this calmness makes us quite sleepy.  Zzzzzzz