My First Vacation

Last weekend I went on something called a "vacation" to a place called "The Lake" in someplace called "Wisconsin". I'm not sure what any of that meant except that I got to go for a really long car ride (I stayed awake for the first two hours) and we stopped at a petstore to buy me a new headcollar because I ate my old one while Mama was putting all sorts of stuff in the car. Mama didn't go to work for days in a row and only left me once (and even then I wasn't alone because Mama's brother's husband was there to entertain me) and I got to swim and meet my cousins and have fun, fun, fun! (Except for the visit to the emergency vet 10 minutes after we arrived because I ate some yummy blue pellets I found hidden behind a television cabinet by some mice. The vet made me throw up, but I got lots of loving from them too.)

Before we went into the house and I ate the mouse bait I did get to go swimming. I'd been swimming once before at home, but I had to be on a leash at that lake because it was a public beach. It is much more fun to swim off leash. And then I swam at least a few times each morning and afternoon we were there.

Into the water!

There is a really fun duckie to swim out for and not give back to Mama.

I'm done swimming and ready to go inside. Mama says duckie isn't allowed inside.

When I got back from the vet Mama's youngest brother and his husband were at the lake. I'd met the brother, but not the husband. They are both very nice. Then Grandma and Grandpa showed up and at dinner time Mama's oldest brother and his wife and two dogs, Ellie and Sadie, came and his daughter and her husband and their dog Bexley showed up too!

 Me and my cousin Bexley. Mama taught Bexley to shake hands last fall and he kept showing her he remembered how.

 My cousin Sadie. She thinks she is the boss of everyone.

Playing with Bexley. I'm wearing the official free roaming dog pink jingle bell bandana. If you wear the bandana Mama can hear where you are and spot you easier in the woods so you don't have to come back and check in as often.

 Bexley had just had a bath. We fixed that.

 So much room to play chase!

Sadie trying to be the ref.

 I was the only one who brought toys to this house. All the other dogs kept taking my antlers to chew. I kept trying to take them back.

Somehow it does not seem right that Ellie gets the big one and I get the small one.

On another night I went to Ellie, Sadie and Bexley's house and they had lots of beds and toys and I stole some toys, but they wouldn't let me use their beds. I could sit on the couch at their house though, which I can't do at The Lake House.

I got to go for a ride in a boat, which was a lot of fun too! We went all over the lake and I got to see other boats and people and ducks and stuff.

 Mama and I also spent some time just hanging out at the dock.

It was a great trip and I slept the whole way home.