Squirrels bark?!?

So, me and mom went for a nice long walk yesterday. It was almost hot out! After all the rain we've had lately I wasn't complaining. By the time we got to the big park a couple of miles away from the house, my motor was running (and frankly mom looked ready to melt too), so we sat on a bench in the shade in the middle of the park to cool off. We were sitting for a little bit and I kept hearing this little noise. I couldn't figure out what it was! Mom was enjoying watching all the little squirrels running around with each other (there must be 100,000 squirrels in this park), but I pretty much ignored them. I had cooled off and was ready to get going again. What's the deal with having to wear leashes in a park that big anyway? She could have sat there and thrown a stick or something, I'd have been more than happy to bring it back (over and over and over again). Anyway- so mom's watching squirrels, I'm trying to figure out how to get more than 6 feet away from her and that little noise kept coming back. Mom finally found it- it was a squirrel in the tree- and it was BARKING AT US! What?!? I didn't know squirrels barked! And it was clearly barking AT us! He was the bravest little squirrel in the world! Okay- maybe he'd have been braver if he came down from the tree and did it, but he stood his ground (okay his limb) even when we walked right up to him, and he kept barking! What a trip!

I'm Back!

Mom's taken a long, LONG break from Dogster, but we're back now and I'm so happy about it! (who are we kidding, I'm happy about everything! I'm just that kind of pup!)
I had a PAWSOME weekend! It started Friday when my buddy Biscuit was dropped off at my yard for a ‘Mom's Are Busy Playdate’. He was over for about 4 hours when mom got home and I thought she would play with us in the yard for a long time like she normally does, but she was busy cleaning (YUCK), she just left us outside in the big yard while she tried tricking us by using the backdoor to go out and the front door to come in and vice versa. We had to keep running all the way around the house to see what she was doing! I don't know what she took all that stuff to the garage... Sooner or later (next Christmas?) it's all just coming back in! Anyway, we had fun!
Saturday was even better! We got to go to the beach!!!! I can't remember last time I got to go to the beach! It was so, So, SO much fun! I love the beach SO MUCH! I just want to run and swim- I'm not even as interested in playing with the other dogs too much cause I rather play in the water and not too many of them go as far out as I do. The riptide was pretty knarly and mom kept thinking I was going to get stuck out there (the chicken thought the water was too cold to go into herself), but I'm a strong boy and as soon and I could touch the bottom, I'd launch myself out! I did make myself a little sick by drinking too much salt water, but all in all, the fun I had outweighed a little queasy tummy!
After Friday and Saturday's fun, I didn't think I'd have too much in store for Sunday. I was wrong! Mom's friend brought over Michella to play with me! Michella is an 11 month old girl Rottie. She's so pretty! We play really good together too. Not so much rough housing like me and Biscuit, but she's really good at keep away- both keeping and trying to get it. We went for a walk together too, which was nice cause she sets a slower pace than I'm used to. We'll get her stamina up sooner or later! Then, when she went home I thought that was it for sure- there can't be anything else for ME, right?
WRONG! About half an hour later, Biscuit was over again! The moms went out to lunch, and then when they got back I got another walk. Another one! So Awesome! We walked over to Zot’s- the do it yourself dogwash. I’ve been a couple of times, but this was Biscuit’s first time there. So we got all squeaky clean and walked back home. 3 walks in one day! I must have walked 20 miles this weekend. Needless to say, I was all tuckered out by the time Biscuit and his mom went home Sunday evening. I was all clean and blissed out. After dinner, mom didn’t hear a peep from me! She went to bed early herself. Guess she was blissed out too!

7 Pawsome facts about me (TAG Game)

Here are the rules (Hint: Copy and paste the rules so you don't have to type
them again):

Each player starts with seven random facts about themselves. Dogs who are tagged, need to post in their Diary the rules & their 7 pawsome facts. Then choose 7 dogs to tag and list their names. Don’t forget to pmail them and tell them that they have been tagged and to read your Diary, or you could send thema rosette announcing they've been tagged!

So here are 7 fun facts about me...

1. I love to swim and will try to swim in any pool of water, even if it's a two inch puddle!
2. I'm definitely a lover, I love every one, furry or not!
3. I'm SUPER FAST! I usually will outrun my ball, unless in a really BIG field and mom has the Chuck-it.
4. I introduced mom to most of the people she knows in my neighborhood even though she's lived there for over 7 years and I'm only one
5. People give me toys to see if I can destroy them. I do serious damage to most.
6. I love to roll around on my back with my legs in the air when I'm paying with something by-myself. Makes mom laugh every time!
7. I love mirrors; but not to look at myself- but to look and see if someone in the room sees me seeing them through it.

I am tagging these 7 pals.....

1. Biscuit
2. Daisy
3. Fischer
5. Lucy
5. Otto
6. Cow
7. Jade

I'm sure most of you have already been tagged, but mom says she doesn't have time to check out all the diary's to see, so I'm Sorry!!!

accidental puppy parties

This has been the coolest week! A couple of night ago, my buddy Otto came over to visit and while he was here, we had a bunch of my neighborhood friends came by. Filo and Pommer came by and then within a couple of minutes, Kate and her mom came by.
Then, this morning, I was going for a walk and I see Dutch and Riley in theri fron yard and Filo and Pommer were walking by. Mom let me off leash and I got to play with them all! What a cool start to Valentine's day!

Swimming in January

Mom came home at noon today and said were were going to nana's house for lunch. As usual, I was totally up for it! We got there and I kept prancing around the kitchen waiting for someone to notice me. As soon as they did, I tried to get them to go to the yard- to the POOL! Nana thought I was nutso for even thinking of jumpin gin the cold, cold pool, it's not so warm today and might rain soon, but mom told her that I could care less what the temp was outside or how cold the pool was inside. She knew I would jump in if given a chance. She let me out, and I made a bee line right into the pool! She let me swim for tow hours- even brought out a tennis ball she remembered seeing in the car. I had a most excellent time!
If that weren't enough, on the way home, we went to Petsmart! I got my very first bag of DOG food! No more puppy food for this big guy!
*yawn*
Time for a dognap!

King of the dog park

Mom took me for a walk yesterday to the dog park. When I got there, there was a male Pitty who was oh so pretty, but not so nice. For some reason, he just wanted to play really rough and when I didn't play back rough, he started to growl at me. Hey, what did I do to deserve that? His mom tried to calm him down to see if he'd play nice, but he just had a chip on his shoulder, so she took him away.
I was so sad that I wasn't going to have anyone to play with, but then a girl pitty came in! She was still a little pup- almost 6 months old- but she sure did want to wrestle too! It wasn't so bad tussling with the little girl- and after a while she played with me my way- keep away with the tennis ball!
A little bit later (bol- that was the Pitty's name! "Little Bit"! She's called that cause that's when her dad says she'll listen- in a little bit!) well, who should come in but a girl Rottie?!? She was a real cutie, too. Her mom said that she doesn't normally take to dogs too quickly, but one look at this coco-pup, and she was smitten!
Then, as if things weren't good enough, there were two girl Goldens that came in to play with me next! Well- that was it- I was King of the Dog Park!

I went to the Rose Parade!

Well, okay- so I didn't see the actual parade. I was there a day early! Mom was going to stay down on the parade route with a bunch of friends and they had to go early to get good spots. She took me down to Colorado Blvd for four hours on New Year's Eve. There were so many people all over the place! I got lots of pets and loves from lots of them too. I surprised mom by being the best dog I've ever been! No jumping on people, no trying to steal snacks, no being a pain in the rear. I did try to play football with the kids, but you can hardly fault a dog for trying to play with a ball, right? Yup- I was an excellent boy. I'm trying to make sure if she goes again next year, that I can stay out all night with them AND stay for the parade the next day! Oh- if only I could get that close to all those horses!

Jet

I have a new girlfriend! Her name is Jet and she's a black standard Poodle. She's really pretty, though the hair cut is a bit much for me, but she doesn't act like a girly girl. She is very playful, like me. She likes to wrestle and jump and run lots and lots! We have been able to play almost everyday since last week. I hope my neighbor decides to keep her so we can play all the time!
I almost burrowed through the fence to see her last week. Actually I made it behind the garage, but there's so much stuff there I couldn't keep going to her side of the garage. Mom was not happy about me trying to visit Jet on my own. She thought she had patched the fence good enough, but I still got through. I've been stuck in the house since then. If mom doens't go back to work- maybe I can ALWAYS stay in the house! Except of course for our walks!

baths

I was just p-miling Echo about baths and it reminded me that I haven't written in my diary for a while. I 've been meaning to write about my bathing experience last weekend.
Now, I LVOE water. I love it anyway I can get it. Pools, ocean waves, streams, hoses, sprinklers, puddles, bowls of water, rain, you name it, I love it! Normally mom gives me a bath outside with the hose. I see that shampoo bottle and I go nuts! I know it means water + massage + a rub down with the towel + (and this is my favorite part of getting a bath!) SUDS! I love to try and eat the suds when mom's getting me all full of bubbles!
So, last weekend I needed a bath. I had gone hiking and swimming with a friend on Turkey day, & two days later I was starting to smell pretty stale. I live where it's hot a lot, so it's no big deal getting a bath with the hose. So when mom grabbed my shampoo and towels out of the laundryroom, naturally I started heading to the back door. But instead of opening the door, she asked me to follow her into the bathroom and she closed the door behind us. How wierd is that? She never even closes the door to the bathroom when she takes a shower (unless we have company), so I was a little alarmed at that. Then she did another first! She opened the shower door, turned on the water, and told me I could get in! Really? Are you playing a joke on me mom? Cause if you are, it's not funny!
I've never had a bath inside the tub before. Everyday I drink water out of there when mom's getting ready to take a shower herself, and I've thought about jumping in to see what it's like, but I'm not allowed in the tub. She had to ask me 2 or 3 times, but once I was sure she wasn't kidding, I hopped right in! You know what? The water in there is WARM! I had tasted it before, but had no idea what it'd feel like on my skin! What a wierd feeling! I didn't really like being stuck in there and not being able to run around between suddings, but mostly, I thought it was great! Plus, when I got out of the bathtub, I got to spread water all over the bathroom! woo hoo!
After toweling me off, mom turned on the hair dryer on just me for a while. Normally I have to fight her for the hot air when she's drying her long hair in the morning, so I get a mouthful of that stuff when all I want is the air. I even got some treats afterwards for being a good boy! I don't know what I did to deserve it, but I think I can get used to this pampering thing I read about on other doggies pages!
Now all I need is to get as dirty as possible as quikly as possible so that she doesn't wait another 3-4 weeks like normal to give me another one! I think that means I need to be on the lookout for big muddy puddles... that usually does it! BOL!

Saturday’s surprise announcement

Saturday was a pretty good day. Mom got up and took me to the high school up the street and threw tennis balls until I gave up and laid down in the mud in the shade. I figured it’d be a typical day of mom trying to wear me out so she could clean the house or something else pointless that didn’t have anything to do with me. And that’s how it started too. She started cleaning up inside (which I was glad of, cause I knew once she moved on to the yard, she’d get mad at me again about the roses I ate on Friday) and a couple of hours later, this real nice lady came over to visit. She and mom were talking all about me and my habits and glowing personality and that’s how I found out that mom’s planning on bringing another Labbie home! See the lady was from SCLRR (So. Cal Lab. Ret. Rescue), and mom’s volunteered to be a foster home to these poor doggies that otherwise might have to live in jail (aka: the pound), or *gasp* be put to sleep! Oh the horror! I’m so proud of mom and I can’t wait to help out those doggies in whatever way I can too! Mom says we just have to wait until she gets a job closer to home, cause it’s not fair to the new pups to have to be penned up for so long and she’s gotta be near by to monitor us, at least in the beginning. I don’t understand why I have to wait- I’ll be the perfect companion to those poor pooches! I want one home with me now!!!!!! But, I guess I’ll just cross my paws and hope that other job happens quick, cause mom’s more stubborn than even me! I can’t wait!