Not Again. . .

Mom is having a rough time of it as of late. She had to write Jillian's final diary entry today.

Jillian wasn't feeling well so when mom took me to get my feet checked again we took Jillian in as well. Well, the doctor felt something in her stomach and took a picture and saw something growing there. Mom took her in to have it removed and they found major cancer growing all over inside of her.

My beautiful sister didn't get to come home. Mom is very sad. I can't stand to see her like this. She keeps telling the rest of us to promise not to put her through this for a very long time. We have said goodbye to Charlie, Ernie and Petey all in less than a year. I hate to see her heart break like this. I whish there was something I could say to make it better.

Ouch! 5/1/06

I went trail riding with my mom and a friend and got my toes stepped on. It wasn't just one toe, either. It was both front feet. One got torn up pretty good. Had to get my foot wrapped up and the other x-rayed. I'm ok now. Ready to go in another week.

Trip With Mom

Hi everyone! I took another trip with Mom. We went to Grandma's and Great Grandma's house again. This time we didn't stay in a hotel. I got to run around in the yard and in snowed all weekend!

That was the greatest fun! I've never seen snow in all my 7 years. By the time we left on Monday there was nearly a foot on the ground. I made sure to run around and get it all messed up. Mom took more video of me in the snow than some people take of their kids.

Great Grandma is 91 years old and her kitty is around 90 (really around 13). We visited them and really enjoyed ourselves. I have a picture of us having a conversation here on my page. She especially likes it because I love her kitty. I shared my food with him.

My brothers and Jillian went to the pet resort and had a great time. I get to go this weekend while Mom takes Jillian somewhere. I got to go for a little while to meet everyone. Mom is worried that I will be unhappy about being left there. From what Woody and Marino tell me I will have too much fun to worry about being left.

I'll let everyone know how it goes.

Sadness In Our Hearts

Mom is very sad right now. SHe went on vacation and our beautiful big guy, Petey got very sick. Mommy and two different vets did everything to make him well, but the sickness and infection was just too much. Petey fought a lot longer and harder than most. He was a very strong guy.

I will always remember the trail rides mom took me on with our "Gentle Giant". Anyone and everyone could ride him and climb all over him. He was the favorite of the stable and grabbed all of the attention where ever he went.

He will be missed more than he could ever have known.

Mom and Dad Gone!

Well, here we go again. Our parents have gone on another vacation and left us with the sitters. Hmph! I'm a good boy and mom knows it. I love to travel with her and stay in hotels but she said I couldn't go to the marathon in Florida and took daddy instead.

I sure hope they do well.

GOOD LUCK MOM AND DAD!!!

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas everyone out there in Dogster Land. We had a wonderful day with our family and friends.

We received some very nice gifts and got to eat some turkey scraps. What a great life we have.

Annual Picture Taking

Well, it's that time of year again. Mom dressed us up in our new leather coats and took us to see Santa and to have our pictures taken. Aren't we the handsomest bunch!

We even got to spend the afternoon at the dog park.

Baby Sister Kitten

Boy, that kitten, Nala, sure is a wild thing. I just want to lover her and give her tons of kisses but she just growls and spits. Actually, she has gotten better but sometimes I guess I scare her. All I want is to love love love her. How can I make her understand?

Holiday Weekend

Whew, what a weekend! Mom took me, just me, to Lake Tahoe with her. We visited Grandma and Great Grandma and also our Aunt in a town called Placerville.

We got to stay in a motel again. This one had a patio that overlooked the woods. You wouldn't believe how good it smelled there. I've never seen so many stars. I've been to Grandma's house before, but we always stayed there. Now she has a neighbor who isn't very nice to other dogs (No dog park for him) so we stayed somewhere else. It was lovely.

We walked all around Placerville on Saturday and I was allowed in every store (except food stores) and got petted by almost everyone who saw me. They said I was so well behaved they would rather have me in the antique shop that some humans. I had just been to the hair salon so I was looking mighty fine, if I do say so myself.

Sunday we went hiking near Lake Tahoe. We could actually see it from a point on the trail. We hiked a long way and then I got to swim in a lake called Aloha. What cold water! I was so thirsty that I didn't mind though. My mom packed me a little lunch and a water bowl for the trip, but I was too excited to use the bowl and didn't even want to eat. On the way back we took a boat ride across another lake. That was pretty neat! There was actually another Standard Poodle lady on the same trail. We were quite the couple. People couldn't get over the poodles in the mountains. Don't they know that we are bred for hunting? We are water dogs with webbed feet and everything.

Mom drove home through California's gold country (Hwy 49) and we stopped at all of the little historic towns and shopped. We even had lunch and ice cream in Sutter Creek. What a wonderful weekend. I think my brothers and sisters are a little jealous, but Mom said she would take them sometime too. (P.S. That's Mom in the red. She hates the picture of her, but I snuck it in so you could see who loves all of us so much.)

Sad Day For All

Well, this is Wednesday and yesterday was a very sad day for us all. Our very old friend, Ernie the horse, died and Mom cried and cried. I've seen this before with Sampson and Charlie, but it doesn't get easier to watch. Mom was prepared for it because he was 37 years old, but she still wasn't ready. All I could do is sit by her quietly. He did go as mom had hoped, by just going to sleep on earth and running over the rainbow bridge in the morning. We were glad for that. I'm sure that all of our family members were there waiting to show him to the beautiful green pastures and he's already running and bucking like a young stallion again.

Happy Trails Ernie. Until we meet again.