Santa Barbara -- Week 1

Oooooooooooooohhhhh so much fun!! We've been to the beach every day this week. There are these wonderful ponds in the rocks. My favorite thing to do is to run over there as fast as I can, then sit in the water and scootch my butt around. Sometimes, I even lay down in the water.
There are these little skittery things on the rocks. I race over there to see them, but they disappear. Sometimes Drake finds one and eats it. I wanna do that!!! Mostly, though, I just want to run around like a silly monster.
Lots of other dogs come up and want to play with me, but I don't have time for them. I only have time to run around in the water. It's fun to be ME.
After we play, I am sore, but the lady with the blue-gray eyes gives me a tasty treat. Then I feel better. Every time I feel sore, recently, she gives me one of those treats. Maybe I'll pretend to be sore so I can get more treats. tee hee.
Yesterday, we went to the park at the end of the day. We sneaked out into the people trail, and Drake and I ran off down to the creek. The best part was the big patch of gloriously stinky black mud! I sat right down and squooshed around in it. THEN . . . I rolled over into it. GLORIOUS!!! The lady looked at me and started laughing. She did pour a while bunch of water over me before I got back into the car. Maybe she didn't appreciate the gloriosity of the mud?

It's Summer!

So, the Lady with the blue-grey eyes slept all day long today! That's usually what I do . . . not her. She says we are going to the beach tomorrow. I LOVE the beach. I get to run and run and run like I used to. I love to race into the water, sit down, and smush my butt around. Sometimes I even roll around in the water. So very marvellous!

Drake likes to eat the little crunchy things that run around on the sand. The lady calls them sandcrabs. Sometimes he chases me. When he does that, I run into the water. He won't hump me there, because he doesn't like the water so much.

Now that the lady won't be working for a couple of months, she said we'll be going to the beach a lot! We go to the one in Santa Barbara, too. That one has lots of wonderful pools to dig around in.

Later in our lives

The lady says it has been eight years. I wonder what that means? Drake and I are fast friends -- he still thinks he is the dominant one. Sometimes he displays his "dominance" and my hips and back hurt. I don't care, I just sit down. We've had a long fun time, and we're going on several things called vacations this summer. The Lady with the blue-grey eyes never leaves us behind. She says she works hard, so we can all go play together.

Six months ago, our dear, old friend, Sonya, went to sleep and never woke up. I was lonely for her, so was Drake, so was her owner, Franco. We tried to fill the hole in his heart, but we couldn't. We are, first and forever, the best friends of the Lady.

Two months age, she came home with a crazy new pal. They call her Mia. She is supposed to be Franco's best friend, but he sure did take a long time to like her! During that time, she horned in on our pack. I had to put her in her place twice. I'm getting too old for this! We tolerate each other, I almost like her. I just wish she would stop barking. She won't be coming with us on our vacations. That'll be nice.

We're getting some yummy new food, because her skin is so bad. COOL! I live to eat (and sleep).

Drake Enters Our Lives

It has been three months, and my person was very, very sad. One of her annoying cats died yesterday. She cuddled me and cried at night. She must have really loved that cat. The lady with the blue-grey eyes, now sad, didn't want to do anything, but I kept annoying her. After all, I'm only nine months old -- I've got to get out and RUN!!! All of my friends are at this place she calls a dog park. Finally, I got her to take me out. It was a hot, hot day, but I ran around like and idiot, just as I always did!! I loved to run. Around and around and around. Just for the sheer love of running. I smiled and smiled, from ear to ear, as I ran around playing. Then I came back to the lady with the blue-grey eyes. She loved me up, then I went off to run again.

I saw her go into the part of the park I couldn't go into. Something called the small dog park. I went over to the fence to see what she was doing. There were a bunch of tiny tiny baby puppies in there. The lady was holding one. He looked like one of the furry squeaky toys she gets for me to play with. She kept saying, "I'll take the male," and they kept saying "he's timid." I knew that look on her face . . . she had made up her mind.

She announced that this little one's name was Sir Francis Drake. Quite a big name for such a tiny tiny thing. He sat in the grass and cowered. I remember that feeling. The lady picked him up and cuddled him -- I helped. I was so excited that I wanted to play with him right then and there. I couldn't, so I sat in her lap with him.

I had a lot to teach him about living with the lady. Things like how to chase the cats, pee on the floor, and poop on the carpet. I also taught him how to get up on the furniture. We played really hard all day long. Mostly, though, I taught him how wonderful it was to be loved by the lady with the blue-grey eyes.

Drake likes to think he's the dominant one. . . . but we all know better. I get the food first, I get into the car first, and I get to play with the toys first. He doesn't care, he just like to walk in front.

In the Beginning

I was in a lonely, noisy place. Lots of other dogs in separate places. The floors and walls were concrete and the front door was made of wire. I was six months old, cold, hungry, and miserable. People would some by, look -- or not - and walk past. I wonder what that was all about? Then, one day when the weather was changing, people came in, put me in a teeny tiny cage and took me away. Where was I going? Why were they moving me? Would I ever come back? Even though I didn't like the concrete place, at least I knew the sounds and smells. This was new and different, and very scary to me. I was put in a place with many other dogs and cats in cages, and a door closed, and it got really really dark. There was a lot of vibration and noise for a very long time, then the door opened and light flooded in. We all started making lots of noise. It was scary.

They took me to a big open place with grass and warm sunlight, but I couldn't run around. I was in the teeny tiny cage still. Some lady tried to put a leash on me and take me for a walk, but I was so scared that I refused to walk anywhere. So, she picked me up and cradled me in her arms. We went out into the beautiful sunlight and warmth. That's when it happened.

A lady and a man came up and looked at me. The lady looked deeply into my eyes, and I looked back. We connected. The lady said "that's my dog," and the man said, "you're not getting a dog today." She said, "that's my dog." The man kept trying to tell her that she wasn't getting a dog, that she hadn't seend anything else, and that it was too soon. All the lady said was "put her back, don't let anyone else see her, I'll be back to get her." The lady with the blue-grey eyes had made up her mind.

Some time later, it didn't seem too long, she came back and cradled me in her lap. She talked to the first lady, did something with a stick in her hand, then got up and left. Why had she left? I thought she loved me. I thought we connected. I was devastated. I stayed in the teeny tiny cage for the rest of the day. Then they came to take me away. I went to a different place. One filled with the smells of fear and urine and chemicals. Why had she left me? Why was I here? Then I went to sleep. When I woke up, I felt uncomfortable. Something hurt in my tummy area, and I felt like a big piece of heavy rubber tire.

Later in the day, the lady with the blue-grey eyes came to me again. She held me in her arms for a long time and we hugged. She called me Millie. That's a pretty name -- Millie. We went outside and she sat down on the ground, shook some white stuff all over me, and started combing my hair. After a while, it felt OK, and those tiny crawly things started to go away.

That was the beginning of my life as Millie. She said she named me after a female human explorer who flew off somewhere and never returned. I love being Millie. I love being loved.