Love those beautiful fall days...

Wow it's been a while, but I guess I've just been busy. Things are pretty great here. I have become a stereotypical golden, and am a bit obsessed with retrieving balls. Mom and dad think this is great because now when we go to the park or on walks in the woods, they have a "control orb" with which to keep me from jumping on strangers or running off and getting into mischief. I don't care - just throw that ball!

Yesterday, we went to a new place that was super fun. We hiked through the woods and came to a lovely pond. Mmm, swimming! There was a rocky spot that I leap off of chasing my ball into the water. Mom and dad had a good laugh at my expense, because when I brought the ball back to mom, I would drop it too soon, and it kept rolling back down to the water (the rocks were angled down). Dad took lots of pictures, so if he ever gets around to downloading and prepping them (he takes RAW pictures with a fancy camera, so you have to apparently go through each one and do special stuff to it), I'll post some here.

Allergies

Do any of you out there get allergies that make your eyes ooze gunk (or maybe just 1 eye at a time - strange as that sounds)? I had this problem last fall, and the vet said I don't appear to have an infection or a scratch or anything wrong, and it's probably just pollen allergies, which are apparently common in Goldens. Now, starting about a week or 2 ago, the goop is back. It doesn't seem to really bother me, but it's definitely not an attractive look.

Mom and I are wondering if any other dogs out there also have allergies that affect their eyes and if there is anything short of special allergy medicines that might help this issue.

My first birthday

On May 6 I turned 1 year old. Mom and dad can't believe how fast this year has passed (well almost a year since they got me when I was 9 weeks old). Anyway, they made a big fuss, and made me wear a stupid party hat, which I didn't like at all. But I guess it's ok because then they let me have a whole hamburger. Yes, it was super tasty, and yes, I gobbled it down in about 30 seconds. :)

I also got a new toy, and some special homemade peanut butter treats from my auntie. I love my auntie!

In other news, we've been going to the dog park lots since the weather has gotten nice, and I now know how to swim. I took to it naturally, of course, and I just love the water. I'm even so good at swimming now that I was helping teach my new Golden Retriever boyfriend, Briggs, how to swim. He's the same age as me, and he's a lot bigger than me, but when it comes to the water, what a wuss! He would wade up to his knees and then act all afraid. C'mon, the water's great!!!

So those are my stories for now. Have a great Mom's Day, everyone, and be especially sweet to your moms (or whoever takes care of you).

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Leo!

Four jobs you have had:
Potting soil taste tester
Floor warmer
Guarder of the yard
Official greeter

Four places you have lived:
Swansea, MA (that's where I was born)
Somerville, MA
that's it, really.

Four places you have been:
Revere Beach
Middlesex Fells
grandma's house in Worcester
Harvard Square
(I really need to get out more)

Four places you'd rather be:
The park!
On a walk!
The other park!
Curled up with mom and dad.

I tag: Millie, Dudley, Annie, and Haley

Weekend fun

This weekend was really fun. We went to the park twice! On Saturday, I made a new best Golden friend. Her name is Chloe, and she is just 1 month older than me. We had so much fun wrestling, and we made mom and dad and Chloe's mom laugh really hard when we started playing tug of war with a stick. It was a pretty small stick, so our noses were right next to each other and it looked like we were kissing or something. Hehe! Anyway, Chloe is really nice and I totally like playing with her. Hopefully we will see her again soon.

Then on Sunday we went to the park again and I saw my very best friend Kelsey. Yippy! Kelsey is so much fun to run with. She runs really far from her humans, farther than I would ever run on my own, but I know I can trust her so I follow her everywhere. Mom and dad don't think this is so good, especially when she led me straight into a mud pit. Thankfully I like swimming and can just hop in the pond to clean off. :)

So that was my weekend. It sure was great! Thanks mom and dad for taking me to the park.

Sleepover and where's dad?

It's been a while since I've written, huh? Sorry to my faithful followers (if there are any). :P

I just came home a few days ago from a 5 day sleepover at my best friend Kelsey's house. It was soooo fun! Wrestling with Kelsey is awesome, and her dad let me cuddle on the couch, sleep in bed with him, and eat all kinds of tasty people food including something called "pizza bones" (mom says these are the crusts from pizza).

Also, there were people staying there too and they had this one wee person who I really, really liked. I would follow her around and stay by her side all the time making sure she was safe. Mom's really happy that I'm so good with these little people (she calls them babies) because maybe someday my family will include one. But ssshh, don't tell dad that. ;)

Anyway, we came home, and it was so weird. Dad wasn't there. He's been missing for days now. Mom, where is he?!?! I miss my dad, but mom is also fun too. She gives me lots of rubdowns and feeds me tasty treats, and she's been really good about taking me for walkies in dad's place. She also has been letting me sleep at night outside my crate. Yay! I promise I'll be good as long as you let me sleep where I want. OK?

Dogster Diary of the Day!

I'm so excited to be picked as Dogster's diary of the day. Thanks Dogster! And thanks to all my friends who read my diary, and all my new friends who have been sending congrats. I love you all!

Have a happy Valentine's Day!

Dog Park Friends

It's been rainy and snowy all week, so I haven't gotten out much, but today it was finally sunny, so mom and dad decided to go to the dog park. Yay! My friend Mingus was there. She's awesome and knows a lot since she's old, but she kept stealing my ball. And she doesn't even like to fetch, she just makes mischief, which is why her dad calls her Miss Chief sometimes. Heheh.

There were also lots of other dogs, and even some wee puppies. Puppies aren't that much fun, though, until they get a bit older, so I mostly played with the grown-ups while mom oohed and aahed over the fuzzballs. Pulleez!

Then we saw some dogs that look like me, Ajax and Stella. I played a bit with Stella and it was hard to tell us apart. Mom and dad laughed a lot to see us Goldens all together hanging out. It was really fun, even if mom was petting other dogs more than me. We got to stay there for almost 2 hours, and I didn't even get muddy! I hope we go back again tomorrow. :)

More misbehaving

Good thing I'm so cute because the other day I got into more trouble and made dad get angry. Mom left for work in the morning as usual, leaving me to fend for myself until dad gets up. Normally I'm pretty good at entertaining myself with some chewing on my toys, napping, and looking out the window at the birds and squirrels, but for some reason that day I really felt like doing something else. I started looking around, but there wasn't much to entertain me in the living room, so I checked the front foyer, and voila! Sitting there on the bench just in my reach was mom's warm winter hat. Mmm, it smelled so much like mom, and it had this irresistible braid thing that hangs off the top. So I snatched it and started to chew.

Luckily for mom's hat, dad got up earlier than usual that day and noticed me nom, nom, nomming on something. He came to investigate, saw that it was mom's hat, and got really angry at me. I rolled over and showed him my belly because I know he's the boss, but he was still mad and made me go in my "bed". Fortunately, the hat was only a little bit ruined, and mom just laughed at my naughtiness, but now mom and dad are starting to wonder what I'll do next, and if they need to start being more careful with their things. Any advice? Did any of you go through a naughty stage around adolecence?

Adolescence

Mom says I'm officially in my ad-o-le-scence, whatever that is. I'm not sure what this means, but I think it has something to do with doing things I'm not supposed to. Like the other night mom and dad went out with their friends and they left me home as always. Normally I'm a good girl and I wait patiently for their return, taking naps, chewing my toys, and looking out the window. But this time, something about the recycling box just kept calling to me. That plastic dog food container from Kelsey's food just smelled *sooo* good! I tried to resist. I really did. But eventually I just couldn't contain myself. So I grabbed it, took it to the living room, and went to town! When mom came home, she found little pieces of plastic all over the floor. She was really surprised because this is the first time I've done anything like that, but hey, now that I'm an ad-o-le-scent, I can do bad stuff, right? ;-P

Anyway, it wasn't too much of a mess, and mom didn't seem too upset. More surprised than anything. However, the saga continues... sometime during the night, while mom and dad were asleep, and I was supposed to be asleep in my crate, my tummy started not feeling so well. And then - bluuurg - up came everything, including a whole bunch of plastic pieces. Mom says hopefully I learned my lesson that plastic is not so good for dogs.