With Age Comes Reason

Or so Sammy says.  I happen to disagree.

I know I owe a lot of stories from both before we went on vacation and while we were out in New Mexico but dad says we finally got good weather and it feels like summer so he isn’t interested in transcribing my stories at this point.  I say he is just lazy.  Not that I can blame him – hot weather tends to put me in a lounging around the backyard mood as well.

Although I still find time to enjoy our yard and smell the flowers!

So, anyhow, this afternoon we were hanging out in the backyard since the weather report this morning said there was a 1% chance of rain at 2 PM and 0% the rest of the day.   I was absolutely shocked (not) when it started to sprinkle at 11 AM and then again around 3:30.  Sammy high-tailed it inside while I huddled up under the umbrella over our table.   Well actually, Sammy ran to the door but as it was closed he huddled under one of our banana trees until our mom opened the sliding door for him.  He remained there even after a strange noise outside our gate.  This left me to investigate the disturbance.  He just laughed at me as he stayed inside shaking his head.  He actually had the nerve to suggest that it is because of his seniority that he knew enough to stay in out of the rain (?) – can you believe that?  What a lazy bum that old man is 🙂

Mo-Tor

Scarneckia

Back at the end of January and beginning of February I discussed our multiple nicknames.  The list continues to grow as Sammy has a new nickname…at least I have started calling him Scarneckia.  This turns out to be the last name of a friend of one of my aunts but she didn’t spell it correctly…some people.   The friend of my aunt spelled it “Scarnecchia”.  Apparently the New England Patriots use to have an assistant coach who also spelled it incorrectly (I had to do a Google search to find out that fact – since I couldn’t believe people could get something so simple so wrong).  I started calling Sammy this after his surgery because of this:

Anhow, before our vacation we had a bit of a mishap while my parents were at work.  The below picture was taken by our good friend from A Paw Above the Rest who stops by our house almost every day to let us out and when we are behaving will take us for a walk…unfortunately we rarely behave 😦 .

This isn’t the first time something like this happened.  When I was much younger I had a blast with an old comforter that was left in our room:

Oh.  And then there may have been another time when I was just a pup that I had a run in with a wicker basket but I did not pose with this handiwork:

Luckily, my dad still had some needle and thread and he once again played surgeon – this time with our bed.  I have to say that he gets the job done but I wouldn’t go to him for any cosmetic work.

This stitching pattern reminded me of something I had seen recently:

Yep.  Ol’ Scarneckia!

Mo-Tor

A Spot of My Own

One morning while up in the mountains of New Mexico, my parents went for a long walk with our Grandfather.  This “hike” took them about 150 minutes.  Surprisingly, we (Sammy and me) were left behind.  Although I think I know the reason, I was none too pleased with their decision.  Just think of what a spike that would have been on my Whistle!

In some ways, this was similar to when we are left behind when my parents go to work everyday.  However, we were on vacation and I was not fully prepared for this sort of treatment.  Sammy did not seem as agitated about being left behind as I was.  This may be due to the fact that on our shorter walk a day or two earlier Sammy’s body gave out on him.  I do need to give the old guy a bit of a break since:

1) He had just nearly died a month or so ago

2) He was on a restricted exercise regiment following his surgery so he was even more out of shape than normal

3) We went from basically sea level in Illinois to 8000′ or 9000′ or so in NM

Now, although his body was not in shape to continue the whole walk back up to the house, his mind and spirit were prodding him onward.  While we (Mom, Grandfather and I) hoofed it back up the mountain to the house, Dad stayed behind with my big bro and tried to get him to rest in the shade and drink some water.  This worked to some extent, but as Sammy related to me later, he was very frustrated that Dad allowed us to get separated from the pack.  He said he would sit there for a minute or two to appease our dad (and distract him) and then he would hop up and start trotting after us.  Dad would eventually get back to his feet and chase down Sam and start the whole process over.  Of course Dad was challenged because Sam is no longer allowed to wear a collar, so how do you stop the guy other than pulling on his tail?  Anyway, in the meantime, we arrived back at the house and I got to stay behind with Grandfather as Mom went off to fetch the stragglers.  During her absence I must admit I was a bit wiped out.  I would alternate between laying on my side panting heavily, and walking to our water bowl and imbibing lots of H2O.  After what seemed like a long time – since I was in recovery mode – I heard the Honda Elephant entering the drive again.  And guess what?  Sammy hopped out of the car like he was a puppy again.  Good times on the mountain!

Oh yeah, my point of this blog was how we got left alone for the big walk those people took.  I knew something was up (and not just because my parents told me) because they brought out The Gate (more on that later if I haven’t already discussed it) and moved our toys/beds into my Grandmother’s room.

Typically, I would sit on that big comfy dog bed by the window so I could watch out the window for any approaching dangers…or opportunities (bunnies).  I think this is what my parents expected me to do, but since I was a bit miffed about being left behind I refused this token of peace and instead found a much better way to spend my time…

SLEEPING ON GRANDMOTHERS BED!!!!

The comforts of home.  Almost made up for missing the walk.

Mo-Tor

Road Trip

Last week we (the whole pack) took a road trip in our Honda Elephant from Illinois to Northern New Mexico and back.  Rather than catching up on my blog posts – telling stories that had built up the previous few weeks – I ended up having a lot more experiences that I would like to relate to you in the near future.  However, I won’t be able to relate everything that happened on the trip.  I will cover a few key points.

1) The purpose of our visit:  Sammy and I went to visit our grandparents who live in New Mexico and have this awesome house in the mountains.  The best part of this visit – aside from seeing our grandparents who we absolutely adore (we consider them part of the extended pack along with our relatives in Michigan) – is the fact we get to go for walks WITHOUT leashes!  How cool is that?!?  We also get to run around outside the house as we wish and they don’t have any fences around their yard (and there are plenty of crows, bunnies, chipmunks, etc. to chase…but those are stories for another time.

2) Why I didn’t catch up on my blog during the drive: I was under the impression that since Dad had the computer up in the front seat with him that he would capture my dictation when he was not driving.  He said that doing this would make him car sick.  Who could get sick of being in a car?!?  I certainly don’t – especially when the windows are rolled part way down and all those awesome smells are circulating through the car.  I am actually think the reason was he was too busy listening to those audible books.  Then while we were up in the mountains he said that the lack of an internet connection kept him from helping me out.  Again I think he wasn’t being completely honest with me since he could have transcribed my stories in Word and then pasted them into my blog when we went down to the city where we did have access to the web.  I gave him a break since technically he was on vacation but it would have been nice if he had just said that to me.  Additionally, I was pretty busy myself as I will show you soon using my Whistle stats.

3) Working like a dog:  Aside from chasing varmints and overall getting a lot of activity in (as mentioned above), I was also put to work cleaning up some of the fallen trees that are around the house after the fire that occurred about 4 years ago.  This was before I ever visited NM but Sammy tells me the scene and view is a lot different now than it used to be.  He says there used to be a lot of tall green trees and the ground was much softer on his delicate little feet.  I really can’t comprehend what he is talking about since the place is now pretty awesome from my point of view for many of the reasons I listed above.  Oh yeah, my point is that I helped grandfather by collecting sticks that were lying around and adding them to this big pile I worked on:

Here I am adding a stick to the pile…

Of course, sometimes my legs needed a break so I would take a stick up to the house to exercise my jaws…

I also had a lot of modeling to do.  These shots are of me in front of a patch of daisies that my aunt may use for my portrait…

Hopefully I can keep my dad focused over the next few days so I can tell you more stories from our trip…and before!

Mo-Tor