Ajax gets a squirrel

The other day I was minding my own business in the yard. When Ajax suddenly leaps up and shoots across the lawn like a rocket! Boom! just like that he's got a squirrel in his mouth. And yes it looks dead. The look in his eye says to me " Cool huh, Tommy? What should I do with it now?" So I let him know he should take it inside and show it to the humans. They'll be proud of you. "OK" he says. And off he trots. Well, I gotta see this! I follow him in and he takes it straight to Da. But Da is staring at one of the computer boxes. Ajax just sits there for a few minutes and Da reaches down without looking and pats him on the head. So Ajax takes the thing to mom who is in the living room with Moma Aunt Becca our friend from across the neighborhood. Well they just keep on talking and there's Ajax standing there with a dead thing hanging out all over! So Ajax walks on by them to go back outside. Just as he's passing Mom she screams! " What the...?! Ajax!" Well Ajax flips! He thought he was doing something good and he gets this kind of response. He runs outside followed by Da, Mom and Moma Aunt Becca. They all surround him and he doesn't know what to do. Da tells him to "Drop!" and puts it in a bag. What the heck was that all about Ajax asks me later. " I dunno" I says.

A Good Soaking

The other day it was raining here so Mom and Da were dragging their feet about the walk. I'm pretty easy going about it but Ajax just can't stand it when we're not on schedule. The walk is his thing. My thing is Ball. Pixel's thing is chewing on us. But Ajax, boy does he love the walk. So, we finally get the humans to relent during a lull in the downpour. They grab their umbrellas and off we go. Well we only get half way around the block, the rain gradually building as we go, when it just cuts loose like we haven't seen since Noah's days! Mom and Da can't do nothing but draw us in under their umbrellas (crappy umbrellas at that. I've never been an umbrella critic before, but boy I am now) They barely provide anny protection at the ground level. We huddled as close around the humans as we could. Mom came up with a great plan and put Da in charge of executing it....bad idea. Da always has ideas of his own. If you want to follow a plan, don't put Da in charge. The plan was for Da to go see if the gates were locked on the unoccupied house that used to belong to Bobby's poodles to see if we could go through the back yard and get to our back yard and thus be saved. So off Da goes. We stand shivering in the rain....And we stand shivering in the rain... And we stand shivering in the rain. Mom starts to get worried. Maybe Da got shot for tresspassing! So off we go to find him and maybe get home where it's dry. I'd never been in Bobby's back yard before. I had no idea what a maze it was. His garden is taller than Da and paths wind all through it. Maybe Da would be lost forever! We got through OK. only to see Da coming out of the back door of our house! "What the heck are you doing!"Mom said. It looked like Da just went home and decided to forget about us because it was so good being in a dry place he didn't want to leave. Selfish Da! Da quickly tried to explain that once he got through the maze he had the bright idea of getting the car to come and get us! "Oh Da! We could have been dry by now", we all thought.

Painting of me/ Da lays around all day.

Boy what a lazy day today was. It was nice laying next to Da all day, but I know he didn't feel well. He got up like he usually does and left for work. He was a little slower than usual getting out the door and was back in a little over an hour. Then he fell back into bed and stayed there all day. Ok, I can accept a super low key day once in a while. One good thing that came out of the day is that Da was able to spend a little time typing for me. Da did something cool the other day, He made a painting of me staring at my ball! Mom is excited because Da is painting in his new studio. I'm excited because he chose me for the subject of his first painting. He says it was just to loosen up a bit, but I like it. I hope I can roust da out of bed for my evening walk.

Why did the turtle cross the road?

This morning we went on our regular dog walk and we saw a turtle crossing the road. The trash men were also on the street today in their big loud trucks. They are nice guys and everything, but I just have to bark at them. Mom had quite a time trying to keep Ajax away from the turtle. She picked the little guy up ( the turtle) and put him safley in a neighbor's garden so nobody would run over him. I don't know where he thought he was going or why he was in the road. He had a nice round shape ...I was wondering if he would bounce if she dropped him ... I dunno, Mom did not drop him for me.

Steamy Spirit Ghosts

We had another triple digit day here in Texas. Allison tried to throw the ball for me today outside, but ya know it was really too hot to play. It did rain late this afternoon around 5:00. Mom took us on our dog walk right afterward. She said we had to go soon so we could enjoy the coolness after the rain. The asphalt on the street had misty steam rolling off of it from the rain that fell. Mom said the steam looked like little Scottie spirit ghosts rising up to join us on our walk. I wished she had not said that ...while the visual metaphor made her happy it sort of creeped me out.

Tennis Shoes

Mom's feet continue to bug me. She took some time today to show me the skins without the feet. She kept sayig "They are only tennis shoes Tommy". . .I don't trust them.

Hero, Weird Feet, and Rain

I've got some things to tell you about. One is: I'm a Hero! That's what Da said when he heard Mom retell the amazing story of the rescued neighbor dog. Da said Pixel and Ajax were heroes too. But I think he was just saying that. He's like that. One of us gets a biscuit, then all us have to. Not exactly fair if you ask me. I'm the Dog Alpha after all. But Da is like that. Mom was taking us on our usual walk around Angora, the road right behind our house, when all of the sudden she pulls back on our leashes. The neighbor human was pulling her out of her driveway in her car real fast! Mom gets a little freaked out when people do this because it’s so hard to see us when you are backing up. Well, to make a long story a bit shorter, the neighbor was going to look for her escaped grey schnauzer. Mom wanted to help, but what can you do tethered to three Scotts? We went a little further on around the bend in the road and there was the schnauzer in the Dane's back yard! The gate has openings big enough for a schnauzer but not for a Dane. Well the schnauzer saw us and froze in a kind of challenge pose. That’s usually our signal. We don't take much off of anybody, 'specially when there are three of us. Mom was the cool headed one and she used some real strategery and convinced us that we should run away toward the schnauzer's house. This is not really what we would do if we were by ourselves, but Mom outranks us so we did it. The schnauzer took the bait and ran after us. Mom screamed at the people in the house who came out and rescued the little guy. In the mean time Ajax and pixel thought it was time to retake the offensive. Ajax got out of his collar which earner him a face pushed down into the asphalt. But I was good! I got Mom's plan and stuck to it when the chips were down. That's why she called me a hero first.

Something strange happened to mom's feet the other day. I've gotten used to it now, but boy was it strange when it first happened. We went on our usual walk after mom convinced me to put down ball. And while we were walking I started to notice something strange out of the corner of my eye. You know that weird tingly feeling you get when somebody is sneaking up on you? That's what it felt like! Usually on our walk mom's feet are black and smell like old leather, but today they were black with white semi circles of something that smelled like my ball! I had this sudden strange paranoid thought that the ball people had taken over mom's feet and were sneaking up on me to liberate their friend Green Ball. Man I freaked! I turned and started barking my head off at Mom's feet. She laughed and laughed! Did the ball people have that much control over Mom? Were they that powerful? No, mom stopped and let me inspect her new "shoes", that’s what she calls it when the skin on her feet changes dramatically. I swear, if we weren't related I'd think these humans were from another planet sometimes!

It rained hard yesterday. I'm putting it down 'cause it hasn't been happening very much. Mom and Da are always happy about it. I see it as a bit of a nuisance. It interferes with my evening play with Da and Ball.

Sunday Morning

I fell asleep with Ball hanging loosely between my teeth in my wide open mouth. The taste of green rubber is a comfort to me. I woke up in the morning and the first thing I saw was Ball. I have many hazy half awake memories of Ball slipping from my mouth, hitting the floor and bouncing around a bit. Da usually wakes up and gently slides it into my arms. Da says that I open my eyes and watch all this but that I never move a muscle. I'm a deep sleeper and a lazy boy once I wind down for the evening. The night is always punctuated with somebody needing something. Ajax needs to go out, or Pixel is whining, or maybe Da needs a drink (of water). Not me, once I'm down, I'm down for the count. That's pretty much the norm around here. Da gets up early in the morning almost every day. The smell of coffee wafts through the house as he gets ready for work. Sometimes he's noisier than other times and he even gets Mom out of bed on rare occasion when he can't find something. Ajax and Pixel always get up and go outside and get Da to feed them a little something. Not me, I love sleep and sleepiness. I don't get out of bed until after Mom gets up. But today is Sunday and we all sleep in. When we do get up, its a free for all. There is great joy and singing. Sunday means adventure. We go to the lake or go find a jungle or something. Mom and Da give up on work for the most part (I don't understand what they accomplish anyway) and concentrate on us for at least part of the day. Hooray for Sunday! I wonder where we'll go today?