What's the big deal?!?

Boy it has been a busy couple of days around my house! Mom keeps talking about some sort of "race" and Grandma, Grandpa, Paige and Winston are coming over for the weekend. It's going to be crazy with all of us kids plus Sweetie hanging around! Grandpa really, really likes to play ball though so I know I should have fun. Mom and Grandma call him the "toy", but I know that the toy is actually the ball so I don't know what they're talking about. I hear it's going to be nice out too so I'm hoping a trip to the park is in order. I'd love to go up to Lake Norman and swim, but everyone says it's getting too cold for that. I try to tell them that's what all this fur is for, but Mom just shakes her head. Oh well. After all that rain there are always puddles to jump in!

Number of throws today: none so far, Mom is at boring old work
Number of balls chewed up by Sweetie: 2 since last Tuesday. Not good!

Collie Rescue Reunion

Dear Diary,

Last weekend I went with Mom, Grandma, and Winston to a reunion for the Collie Rescue of North Carolina. There were a TON of collies there, who all looked like big versions of me in different colors. Winston pretended that he was a "collie in training" and everyone thought that was cute. I couldn't believe what those collies were doing! They actually had sheep in a pen and the collies would go in and chase them. They called it "herding instinct" and some of them were really good. Others seemed more interested in barking at their friends who were waiting outside the gates. My Mom wouldn't put me in there because she knew I wouldn't do well with sheep running around. Not unless you could make them look like over-sized tennis balls. Then I'd be after them for sure!
At the reunion, we got to meet my new brother Jamie for the first time. He was really nice, and I think I'll get along with him well. His foster Dad says that he likes to play fetch so we already have something in common! Mom says if all goes well he should be coming to our house on the 22nd. It's going to be hard giving up my "only dog" status, but Jamie is nice and I guess I'll like having him for a brother.
Oh! They also had this thing at the reunion called "Canine Good Citizen". This is a certification by the AKC on how well a dog behaves in certain situations. My Mom signed us up and I was a little nervous about some of the things I had to do. Meeting strangers is not always my favorite thing! But it was actually pretty cool to walk along with my Mom and show off my training. I passed with flying colors and Mom says I'll get a big old certificate to hang on my wall soon, along with a tag for my collar. So that is something I can be proud of!

Number of balls chased today: 3... not nearly enough!
Number of balls chewed up by Sweetie (Mom's roommates' dog): 1... progress!