“As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly.”
Arthur “Big Guy” Carlson
Not too long ago, we caught an episode of this old TV show (WKRP in Cincinnati) which had a whole bit about turkeys and their inability to fly. I totally got what Big Guy was saying since shortly after watching the show, we were on a walk at Foss Farm’s – one of the conservation lands in Carlisle – during which we came across the oddest looking little thing on two legs. As Dad got out his camera to take a picture, the thing took off out of the tall grasses and headed into the woods. At about this time, this other thing came running out of the woods on two legs and started running wide circles around Zoe and I, going ever further and further away from the scruffy little thing (which Dad missed getting a pic of – his reaction times are becoming a problem in providing appropriate video corroboration to my text). This is the second or third time this thing was messing with us and not the first on account of Dad not hitting the record “button” on his phone (did I mention he is losing it?):
In Defense of Turkeys
Come to think of it, maybe this occurred before we watched WKRP, since I was so on board with these turkeys not being able to fly during the show. This is the problem with not having the Scribes’ attention when important things happen – the chronology of my memories gets a bit jumbled (time not being something us dogs spend a lot of time marking – given there are so many other things that need marking…property lines, marking over the markings other dogs, hydrants*, trees*, etc.).
Aside from the turkey, it was a beautiful day – whenever it was:
Then just the other day, in our own backyard – so to speak (since it was really on “Mom’s Mountain – Mass edition” which is on the SW side of our garage which is actually our front yard), there was a whole herd (?) of turkeys…young and old – which was no surprise to Zoe and I as we have smelled their odor many times over the time we’ve been here in our new house).
Wild Turkey
So why did they not fly in Cinci? My guess it is one of those “Ohio things” which make us not like that state one bit.
The Tempest
*to be honest, the reason we mark trees and fire hydrants is more often then not, to mark over the markings of someone (of the canine sort) who had previously marked it – thus not being much different then the number two reason I listed.
So another National Dog Day (NDD) has come and just about past us with not even a whiff of steak. Of course, this might be because after dinner last night, as Dad was rinsing off the dishes the leftover steak – which had been carefully placed in a Tupperware container on the counter without the lid (a lot was left as Mom really enjoyed the grilled fresh corn on the cob instead of steak), was stealthily cleaned out by Zoe. No one would have known if she didn’t end up knocking it off the counter trying to get the last scraps stuck in the corner – which I ended up getting as they landed on the floor since I was standing close by acting as her look out for the caper.
But I digress. My point about NDD, in fact, encompasses a number of complaints with this year’s “festivities.” The numbers below refer to the exhibits in the photos / movies at the end of this post:
My Mom left us to go into work.
Dad gave us a shower – our first since the whole Covid thing, which of course means it was our first in our new house. Not something that made us feel special.
Instead of helping Mom with her Zoom calls – which includes wrestling on the bed behind her desk, maybe barking at a squirrel or two, and of course napping on the aforementioned bed – we had to help Dad with yard work in the hot sun of the afternoon.
The New Yorker daily cartoon was not at all funny – just a statement of fact as far as I can tell.
Why is NDD limited to one day? Isn’t every day really a day to celebrate us? Guess that isn’t limited to this year, but really? Really? Just one day?
Well at least FarMor sent us her best wishes and acknowledged that in our house “I think NDD is every day.”
Hope you enjoyed your Dog Day of Summer,
The Tempest
Evidence submitted to support the 5 points listed above:
EXHIBIT 1:
NO PIPPI = NO MOM 😦
EXHIBIT 2: you’ll have to trust me on this one as no video or photographic evidence exists due the constant presence of water – both being poured over us, and then catapulted off our fur with a few well timed shakes (right after Dad had mopped the floors…he,he,he*).
*I must point out that this sequence of cleaning was not very well thought through on his part.
EXHIBIT 3A
EXHIBIT 3B
EXHIBIT 4:
This is funny? The food is kibble and in a dog bowl and not on a counter. Just don’t get it.
Today Zoe finally came back to earth and started behaving “normally” – at least for her and enough to put a video together of our trip to the beach. The poor girl had a psychic split in her personality trying to catch those darn ocean pigeons (or were the penguins? Dad said both on our walk this afternoon which did no good to Zoe’s current lack of focus — and to be honest, I thought what Zoe was trying to capture were actually Seagulls…Shrug). Anyhow, as her video accurately depicts, those flying pests were tormenting the poor girl. First flying to her left, then to her right, then maybe further out and then back toward shore In any case, the 30′ leash attached to her Tiffany collar was the most frustrating aspect of her experience since she was constantly being “reeled” in by her mother (her very patient Mom who walked up and down the beach so she could swim). I enjoyed my time on the beach playing with SevenMonth and digging in the sand. Of course I ventured into the water for a bit, but I prefer when my paws are touching something solid. Zoe is much more the swimmer than I am but I don’t mind the water nearly as much as Sammy and Banshee. Although, Sammy did tell me this one story of when he actually was paws-a-paddling. If I recall the scene correctly, it was one of those days when they were in Ann Arbor and went to the park for some pancakes – a yearly tradition when Pa was our master chef of the grill. Did I mention he also made bacon? Boy, do I wish I had been there for one of those events! Bacon, pancakes, my A2 family – that must have been the best. Anyhow, during one of these occasions, Sammy was there and he was put to the test of crossing the river (on a leash with Mom attached) to get him over his water phobia. And boy did it work! He started churning his big Sam paws through the water once he could no longer touch the bottom – mom in tow. As they approached the opposite shore – which is where the grilling was taking place – mom yelled to my Aunt E to: “Get Sammy!” Aunt E, knowing Sam had never swam before, got her camera and (maybe) captured the moment for posterity. Unfortunately, according to Sammy, Mom was actually asking E. to grab the leash that tethered her and Sammy together. As a result of the photo-op…rather than the assistance of getting Sambuca out of the river, mom ended up being dragged the last five or so feet to shore by my big brother. Yep. On her face through the water and mud. If only I had been there I would have…saved her?…grabbed Sammy’s leash?…Ate the bacon as everyone was distracted (likely)?…Or rolled in the grass laughing until my ribs hurt knowing that families are like that – wanting to do what is right but often missing the target. Which is what makes good memories and truly good times.
Back to the video. Not trying to be a critic of her work but rather trying to put some perspective on the images and soundtrack. 1) That water tasted like crap. So salty. What’s up with that? True, we kept trying it a bit to see if it was all so awful, so we were glad when mom said we’d get sick if we kept drinking it – truer words may never have been spoken. 2) Without the leash, Zoe would likely have ended up in Boston which is just off in the background…or she may have followed the gulls out to sea – thus the reason for being tethered. 3) Having already done my shake to rid my fur of most of the water, I found out that being near Zoe whilst she did her shake was shake inspiring – given the amount of H20 that girl spreads after a spin in the ocean.
One final note for today. My Mom scheduled a mental health call for her team to provide tools and tips to manage uncertainty and change, as these are kinda weird times. Tell you that is truth! My parents have been around since mid-March, all day, and we had this move thing. Anyway, the therapist-woman on the call said (among other things) to breathe, and listen to the birds (although I am guessing she didn’t say anything about swimming after them in the hopes of an early dinner). She was really cool, based on my observation from creeping on the call from the hall… and she noted the birds are not aware of any of this COVID-19 pandemic or anti-racist call to action or political nightmare going on (sorry to be somewhat US specific there at the end…) so she said listen to to the birds, and be aware of the seasons and enjoy. I was reflecting on this and realizing this was likely true; that seagull taunted Zoe like nothing else was going on! My parents reflected on how weird it was to be at the beach in masks, while the birds were birds. Maybe I have a new found respect for birds?
Today Zoe and I got a huge surprise. Might be the best ever if we get steak tonight, which we might given the fine print aspect of this story… Being a Monday, we expected Mom to either spend time commuting to work (in the basement), or taking up her post in the family room where she spent much of last week due to the fact that the smell of fresh paint was overwhelming in her basement office. However, upon moving upstairs to avoid that odor, she had to halt her first Zoom meeting to remove the white Asiatic Lily Dad brought home (turns out a nice smelling flower outside was too much when brought into her new makeshift work space). However, this wonderful morning neither was happening on account of her taking a day off to spend with us! Then, as we all piled into the car for what we assumed was a trip either to the vet, or one of the local conservation land trails, we were informed we were going to the ocean!!!! Although we had never been to The Ocean and didn’t know what salt water was, we were so pumped up to experience this new thing (and hoping it had all the smells and flavors of the ice cream store we visited in July). As we were driving, our parents were telling us about this great beach where dogs were allowed and of this restaurant/fish monger shop that was just around the corner. See the plan was to spend the morning at this beach thing – which is apparently associated with The Ocean – and then get some seafood related soup/sandwiches for lunch and for dinner a tuna steak, mussels, scahllops, or whatever mouth watering goodness from the sea sold at Nahant Fish & Lobster* (Nahant being the city/island we were visiting – and don’t ask me to pronounce that for you since we haven’t had a chance to contact our good friend A who helps us with the local accent). During the whole ride down, Zoe was beside herself with anticipation of what was to come – she couldn’t settle down at all…even with Mom in the back seat with me and the whole front passenger seat for herself.
(*Should be spelled Lobstah – as I understand it.)
As we arrive at the “Doggie Beach” in Nahant, we saw a sign that said dogs were not allowed on the beach between May and September, which came as a surprise to Dad since this came up when he Googled “dog beaches Massachusetts” on Saturday evening – and seriously…during the COVID thing we are sticking to these rules????
Turns out the answer is yes. But the fine gentlemen who took our $10 to park at the beach told us we could walk to another dog friendly beach! This was a great relief to us (and our parents) since we had already got a good whiff of what this ocean/beach thing was all about – and it was beyond great! So we parked, took a short stroll to the beach, and then, right in front of us was water, water, water! Now I’ve got to tell you, this water didn’t taste as good as the little lakes, rivers, and ponds around us (or the pond at the D.O.G. park in Illinois – our parents always spelled it out like we couldn’t figure out what they were talking about…and now the mention of oceans or beaches is going to get the same reaction from us).
Boy. What an adventure. I have a couple of photos to share with you from this trip, but unfortunately, Zoe’s brain kind of exploded when she saw all the water – and those pesky “ocean pigeons” per Mom, that Dad called seagulls – so her movie will have to be constructed when she has calmed down some and her neurons are once again connected by logic.
After a good time at the Nahant Dog friendly beach, where Zoe swam and swam and swam (although she is very muscular I bet she was able to do more given the help of salt water…) and where I met this cute 7 month old boy whose name was…did we find out his name? Was it “SevenMonth?”
Me with SevenMonth
Seems a bit short sighted if that was indeed his name…and tho he barked at Zoe she ignored him to dive into the water again to see if she could get the gulls… she is kinda all into whatever she is into! Probably why Mom’s shoes are wet and pants too… anyhoo, we then headed back to where the car was parked. But instead of getting in the car, we took a stroll along this path that led to a coast guard station and bathroom – which Mom took advantage of. From the path we could hear the surf rolling in, and smell all those fascinating ocean odors wafting along the off shore winds. This was the beach we were supposed to go to. But that fine young man at the gate informed us that we could come here as early as September 16th! He gets the Tempi Star of the Day! Come to think of it, this is something I should probably start dolling out every day.
After our stroll along the path, we finally hopped into our car and Mom called the restaurant to order our lunch and our to-go future dinners – and as it turns out, this establishment is only open Tue, Wed, Thurs. STRIKE TWO on fine print, people! However, if you were to look at a calendar, 9/16 this year is a Wednesday…just saying.
So without food for them or dinner, but an excellent time at a beach, we headed home.
We all expected Zoe to be well worn out after all her activities at the beach, but she was still worked up on the ride home…until she got a good couple of gulps of water (which, from my perspective sounded like: slurp, slurp, slurp, cough, belch, slurp, slurp, slurp, cough, belch…etc.). This continued until just about the time we pulled into the Whole Foods parking lot. Which is about the time things started getting better – from a food perspective. When Dad got back in the car, after setting two bags of groceries into the back of our car, the smell of pizza and…wait…is that the ocean again? Yep, no doubt about it, fishy goodness – which in fact turned out to be Sushi! One of my favs which we haven’t had since IL. And wait… is that STEAK???? Yep. Maybe the fine print is not always that important?
In summation, I hope my parents learn to read the fine print, but given their trouble in this regard they compensated well and it turned out to be an utterly fascinating and eventful day!
On Saturday, Zoe and I had a vet visit for some immunizations. In this day and age, our parents aren’t allowed in the facility so a vet tech comes out to get one of us. Zoe went first and practically draggedthe poor girl through the front door she was so excited to go to the vet. This was in stark contrast to the German Shepherd pup who was brought in just before Zoe. This little guy put up one of the best donkey moves I’ve seen for awhile – just sat down right where he was and refused to move. Of course, our buddy back in Illinois, Kevin, was the best at this given he weighed a good 160+ pounds. The puppy at the vet eventually lost the tug-of-war with the tech who eventually got him headed toward the door – something Kevin would never have let happen.
Upon her return from getting her shot and being weighed, we found out that Zoe – despite her fur producing “calorie out” strategy – had also gained roughly 1.9 pounds since we arrived in Car-lie-lee. HAHAHAHAHA!!!!! Good try girl, but apparently your evil brilliance was no match to the constant treats we have been receiving while our parents are “working” from home and trying to get us to stop barking and behave – the real source of our “blossoming” is no doubt the extra calories from these treats…(hehehe).
Zoe’s Blossoming Backside PhotoBomb
HEY!!! WAIT!!! Wait one minute!!!
Since Saturday, the number (and volume) of treats we are rewarded with seems to have diminished significantly. WHY? Why, Dr Vets did you let them know they were the reason for our increase in weight???? Now that we are on to you, next time we visit we may put on the breaks like Kevin – even if by that point we aren’t 100+ lbs! And wha….??? Who is this guy Mike who stopped by today? You people are in for trouble.
The Tempest
(Editor’s note: The vet tech also said: “if they are gaining weight now when they are relatively active, the winter is going to be even worse).
PS – the photo above has somebody other than myself and Zoe – which I didn’t realize until we got home and the Scribe showed me the picture. See if you can find it – a kind of “Where’s Waldo of Carlisle”…hint, it isn’t our friend Wally – he got in a two hour standoff with a woodchuck and although in pretty good shape, is wearing a cone of shame.
Montana Moments 