Grandma Sent Pictures!

Here are a few shots of me not getting in Mama's scupper.

I'll just sit here, thanks

Two feet in is enough

 Maybe I can just swim along with you instead

Vacation!

Mama and I went up to Wisconsin last weekend. Grandma and Grandpa were there although none of my doggy cousins were. I had a great time with Mama being with me all day long and paying attention to me non-stop. First I learned how to jump off the dock! Everyone was very excited when I did it. Mama didn't get to witness my first dive because in order to show me that you CAN jump off the dock Mama had to jump off the dock herself and I jumped off right after her, but once I did it I decided it was fun. I also decided that the first spot I jumped off of was the ONLY spot I could jump off of. Mama and the grandparents thought that was very funny.

Ta da!!

 

I like retrieving my ducky, but not necessarily giving it to Mama after I bring it back to shore

On another day Mama and I got a ride into town from Grandma who was going to run errands and then we walked home. First we went along a hiking trail and then we walked down some roads. The trail was nice, but there were a lot of bikes. I was a little bit bad about them until about thirty boys on bikes came up the trail. Mama said it must have been a whole camp taking a trail ride. At first I was alert, then I was worried, then I snuggled into Mama for reassurance. After that huge pack of boys on bikes the ones in small groups we encountered didn't seem so bad. Right before we got home Grandma came by in the car and we rode the last 1/4 mile or so. 

Mama says she knows I wasn't a stray because I wandered off and got lost because I led Mama home from town (it is about four miles) without ever having been in town or on the roads we walked home on before Grandma drove us down them to the trail head and this was only my second visit to the Wisconsin house.

I took a break from hiking in a nice lake along the trail

I got to take a big boat ride around the lake which was fun. We stopped at the dock of some old family friends of Mama and the grandparents and while the humans talked I got pet by a nice girl. There was another girl on the dock, but she wasn't as nice because not only didn't she pet me, she didn't share her apple with me either.

Mama spent a little time each day we were on vacation trying to get me to ride on something called a scupper. It is a kind of sea kayak that you sit on not in. I had to wear a life vest and Mama did too just to be safe in case I ever did get on it and out into the deep water. Mama kept telling me I'd like it if I tried it, but I didn't believe her. One day I kept showing Mama the big boat in case she forgot that that one existed and I liked it, but she said no I needed to learn to ride on her little boat. I did get to play a fun game where Mama sat in the scupper and I stepped on it and off it to get pieces of bread. On the last day I did put all four feet on it at the same time and Mama pushed the boat away from shore about 2 feet before I got worried and jumped off. Mama says maybe next time I'll actually ride it.  Grandma took pictures, but for some reason she won't share them with Mama so instead of pictures of me in my life vest NOT getting on the scupper, here are some pictures of the baby loons that we saw while out on a big boat ride.

Wore Myself Out Swimming This Morning

Not the Adventure I Had Planned

The other day Mama packed up some suitcases and put my bed and a bag for me in the car and I was all excited because I thought we were going on an adventure to Wisconsin like we did before, but no. We drove in the right direction for a little bit and then Mama got out and took my stuff with her. Then she came and got me and we went into a big building that was an awful lot like The Pound. I trusted her and followed her through a room full of kennels to a lean-to with bigger cages and Mama me and the pound lady went in to one. Then Mama and the pound lady left. I waited patiently by the door of the cage for Mama to come back, BUT SHE DIDN'T!!! The pound lady came back and told me it wasn't a pound, but a kennel and Mama would be back in a few days. Then she took me to a kennel. I waited patiently for Mama to come back until it was dinner time and Mama ALWAYS comes back for dinner time, but she didn't. That is when I decided I needed to bark. And bark. And BARK! But Mama didn't come back for FOREVER.  The pound, um, kennel ladies were very nice to me and I got food and treats and my run in the lean-to was next to a border collie and we had fun playing Run Along the Fence, but when I was supposed to be having naptime in the kennel I was barking instead. After forever and ever (or maybe two nights and three days) when I was in the middle of playing Run Along the Fence with the border collie the kennel lady came and got me and brought me out into the big room and THERE WAS MAMA!!!! I ran right to her and jumped on her so hard I almost knocked her down and then I ran to the exit door and stood there poking at it with my nose to let her know I was ready to leave. Mama said she had driven to somewhere called North Carolina for something called a "wedding" and that, if I had been the good kind of dog who could wait patiently in a hotel room for 6 hours, I'd have gotten to come along and we'd have taken a vacation and gone hiking someplace called "The Appalachian Trail", but instead we had to do separate vacations and neither of us got to go hiking.

First Day of Summer Hike

Mama has a tradition where if the first day of a season falls on a day off she takes an all day hike at the state park. This was supposed to be my first all day hike, but, because Mama made a wrong turn and accidentally skipped a 2 mile section of trail and I walk so fast (Mama says I hike like I have someplace to be and am on a tight schedule) our all day hike turned into a 3 hour hike, but it sure was fun!

Me hiking like I have someplace to be and am on a tight schedule.

 A heron

This frog was about the size of Mama's pinky nail and there were at least a dozen of them hopping across the trail. Mama told everyone who approached us in that area to watch their step!

We saw lots of other dogs and some joggers and bikes. I was very good with the joggers and only lost it totally with one bike and it was because she came up from behind us without warning. In the state parks the bikes are supposed to go only one way and we walked the opposite way so Mama could see the bikes coming and I wouldn't be surprised, but this woman thought she was more important than the rules. She almost lost a leg and Mama yelled, "Bike in wrong direction!" instead of saying, "Sorry." like she normally does. One lady who we saw twice at one loop commented that Mama and I were moving really really fast. Mama smiled and the woman said, "No seriously, you are going really fast." Mama thinks we hike at about 4 miles per hour, but we stop for lots of water breaks and I have to stop and sit every time I see a bike, for some joggers and some dogs too so that slows us down to about 2.5 miles an hour or so.

Another tradition Mama has is that, because the state park has so many parking lots she has let each dog have his own official lot and trailhead which she chooses as she hikes the first time with the new dog. This is the view from what will be my trailhead.

That lake in the distance is covered with waterlilies at the shore.

Me after I discovered that waterlilies, like duckweed, are not a solid surface.

Miles hiked: 7.5

Busy Me

Mama and I have been busy since I arrived. She says she is trying to "civilize" me, whatever that means. I think I'm perfect as I am. I don't understand why, if it doesn't bother me when I pull on the leash, it should bother Mama. Or why she doesn't want me to protect her from all the dangers in the world like bicycles, joggers, cats, and the neighbor across the street. Running full speed and jumping over and on things is okay in the backyard but not the living room? Why is that? Pull toys are only the ones made of thermal fleece and aren't leashes, Mama's belt, Mama's coat tails, the sheets, the afghan, or the pillow? Also, apparently throw pillows are not chew toys, even if you only chew one small hole in the back corner and despite the name they aren't meant to actually be thrown. When you want something Mama has and she doesn't share right away it seems that it isn't right to put your face as close to her face as you can and bark. Morning is when Mama wakes up not when I wake up and it doesn't help to paw Mama in the face or poke you nose into her eye to see if maybe she is awake. Breakfast isn't until 6 a.m. no matter how much earlier you wake up too.  Finally, when you see a dog at the park and you are on your longline you are not supposed to run to the very end of the line and then keep going so that Mama goes flying. Apparently if you do this you can break Mama by doing something called "dislocating her shoulder" and that means that you won't be getting any longline time for at least a month.

I think this being civilized stuff is for the birds (who you are not supposed to stalk and try to catch while on walks).

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.