Quiet house this week...

Mom is still having a problem with her back. Apparently, it is fine ALL DAY LONG, but once she lies down it goes wacky and her leg goes to sleep and she can't walk. In the morning it IS a major problem because it takes her about 3 hours or more before she is fine again. She is getting up at 5:30 instead of 6:30 and is still late to work every morning. Good thing she is the boss, hehehe!
Sooo, she decided since she owns a boarding kennel and she can't walk in the morning to put us out and then back into our crates she would take us over to the kennel until she is fixed. (She has an appointment next week, if she survives that long, BOL!) Anyway, me and Toto heard the word kennel so we vanished under the desk.
It was wasted energy... she was leaving us bed dogs home anyway, hehehe! We either don't need to go into our crates, or, in the case of Lola and Crystal, they went into the puppy pen with the in/out door. Silly Harvey raced right over to the kennel, but me and Toto and Ali and Zena all got to stay home cuz we are good dogs.
Yesterday Mom didn't have to work so she just lounged around all day long. Well, she did take us down to the lab pen, but Toto almost finished her off. She was walking back up to the house and just as she was taking a step he jumped on her and crashed her to the frozen solid ground.
Afraid she was broken, Mom slowly got up and discovered an amazing thing... except for some mud on her knees and arms, she didn't even have ONE SINGLE BRUISE!!! In fact, her cameras had more mud on them than she did!!! She still can't believe how that could happen!
I guess she doesn't remember that I was under her and broke her fall???? Sounds good to me, anyway.

Trouble in my happy home...

Ya know, I am having a problem here. It seems that EVERYONE loves the Beanster, well, at least all the other dogs loves the Beanster. Sure, we have a few snits now and then, especially me and Barney or me and Riley when we are out in the field. But, those are nothing.
Well, enter Zena, the WARRIOR PRINCESS. At least she thinks she is the warrior princess. Every single time I have something nice she jumps righht in the middle of ME and beats me up.
I was brought up correctly by my Mom. I do not fight with girls, I don't hit them, I don't kick them, I don't bite them and I don't bully them. Apparently, Zena wasn't raised the same way when it comes to boys.
She does hit me, she does bite me, she does kick me, and on and on. If fact, I have decided my only alternative is to spend each evening snuggled in my bed under Mom's desk.
Out of fairness to Momsie...she does yell at Zena and make her go lie in her bed, but, gee, that is AFTER the fact!!!
Tonight is a perfect example...I was innocently lying in a dog bed chewing on a fresh marrow bone. Well, next thing I knew, I heard a roar and was hit by a ton of bricks!!!! Yup, it was Zena, the Warrior doing her warrior thing.
Gee, can't I have a little peace and quiet???

Been a while...

For some reason Mom has been ignoring me lately. I haven't come up with any real reasons, but I suspect she has the Winter blahs??? We haven't seemed to have any Winter yet, so I am not sure what that could be about.
I did hear her talking about an ocean trip, but then she got a hurt back. It's strange, it is bad in the morning and fine for the rest of the day... sooo, if we went to the beach, it would be fine WHILE we were there, no doubt!
I have it on reliable authority that she has this coming Wednesday off. According to our weather forecaster it is supposed to be sunny and above freezing at our beach on Wednesday... maybe I will have to beg a little?
Tomorrow she is working in the morning but she has to clean our house since she didn't have any time off last week cuz some of the girls were out sick. Mom was complaining about that... she was limping around and ended up being the only one at work. Guess that's what happens when you own the business, hehehe!
Maybe I will hop in the car on Sunday when she goes to the 5K to take photos. I could cheer Crystal and Julia on, I guess. BTW, Crystal's pink Patriots shirt is REALLY neat...wish I had a Patriots shirt!!

A LABRADOR?????

Yesterday Mom's nephew came over here and left Gator, that big, yellow lab that Mom owns and that lives with him. Apparently, Gator has a girl friend here to visit with. She is also co-owned by Mom and she is a black girl.
Well, Mom was watching them today and admiring them both and she mentioned she might like a yellow boy out of the litter, if they have a litter this time.
I, of course, expressed my dismay at the thought of having another labrador puppy racing thru the house, chewing everything up, and eating all our toys and hogging the bed. Mom said there were a lot of "if's" before we ever have the little baby in hand.
First of all, the biggest if is IF she will even get pregnant. The last time she did not, and this time she is even older and she has never had a litter yet. Strike one!
Second is IF she has a litter we can only get one IF there are any yellows in the litter at all. You see, while Gator is yellow, the female is black and her mother was black and her father was chocolate. Her mother DID carry yellow since her mother was yellow, but, her father DID NOT carry any yellow so IF her mother doesn't have a yellow gene the litter will be all black since Gator doesn't have a chocolate gene.
If there are yellows in the litter there needs to be AT LEAST two males cuz Mom's nephew wants a yellow male, too. So, that is also a big IF.
Finally, it depends also on what the co-owner of the mother wants...who knows, maybe SHE wants a yellow male, too.
With all those if's, I am not holding my breath until we get one. Especially since it will be TWO months before they are even born and another TWO months before they can come live with us, IF.
Mom's dog friend has a saying, quite fitting to this, I believe: "If dog poops were donuts we'd all be rich."

Brrrrrrrrrrrr.......

It was pretty sunny when Mom got home from work. She said we could go down in the lab pen BUT she neglected to mention about the 18 degree temperature AND the 25 mph, gusting to 40 mph winds!!
I wondered why she put Barney's pajamas on me...I should have known something was up. Apparently, after glancing at my photos from today, I also forgot the whole field is covered with ICE. What a slippery slope that was!!!
It was weird... if you ran around in the middle it was dry, crusty snow but if you got anywhere near the bushes it was glare ice... slippery ice at that! At least she only got one of me sitting right on my butt, BOL!
Would you believe that at 3 am, yes, as in middle of the night am, Momsie decided to take some photos of the cats cuz they were all wound up. I wouldn't have minded tha BUT...she also decided to fire that flash at us poor, sleeping dogs. Then she wondered why we all had those silly looks on our faces, BOL!
Serves her right when I am forced to chase Joey in the middle of the night and wake her up by mistake. From now on it won't be a mistake, hehehe!

Back at work...

This morning Skye and Julia came over and got me and Zena and took us to work.
I was a bit nervous when they put me in that expen that I had to stay in while Mom was gone. But, Zena was with me so I figured it was safe this time.
Pretty soon they got us all decked out in hats and glasses and stuff and started taking photos of us. Fortunately, my ears are shaved so I didn't need any ribbons in my ears, BOL!
After the photo shoot Zena and I went back in that pen. Ya know, she is pretty nice and she even let me share the camping bed with her. She is MY new friend now.
We stayed at work all day, even after the girls left. Mom made them bring everyone else back home but me and Zena got to stay and show off to the people that came to work.
Did you notice that Zena is BIGGER than I am??? Mom says it looks like that in all my photos BUT when we are standing side by side I am a tiny, tiny bit taller than she is. She does weigh MUCH LESS than me, but I am sure Mom will fix that pretty soon, BOL!

I'm HOME!

Well, first thing this morning the phone at work rang. It was Mom, and she told Tonya to bring us on home! Finally!!!!
And, Mom DID get me the greatest present...she brought me a NEW PAL, Zena.
I really LIKE Zena. She is cute and tiny and friendly and she likes me, too. I can't wait until we get to go down in the lab pen with her so I can show her all the sights down there.
I even am going to let her have my nice, fluffy kitty bed tonight because I am sure she is cold up here in the North Country. Mom said it was very, very warm down there.
Harvey told me that Mom and Julie were talking about me and Julie's Georgie and how they (Barney and Harvey) were ever so much better at traveling then we were. Imagine that!!! He said they just laid on their bed when Mom and/or Julie got out of the car and didn't jump in their seats and stare out the windows and get them all nose prints, and have to be put back in the console bed like us.
And, Harvey didn't bark at Julie when she got up in the night like I do. And, they were nice and snuggly all night long, but, so were we!!!!
But, it's okay, Mom said she really did miss me, especially when they were on the beach. She said I would have LOVED that beach!!! And, I do really enjoy seeing everything on the travels...Harvey and Barney couldn't tell us a single thing they saw along the way.
At any rate, I am sure glad to get home from the kennel, even though I wasn't on vacation!

I am NOT going?? oops!!!

Well, it is official, I am not going on vacation with Mom and Julie. How do I know, you may ask??? Well, this afternoon when Mom got out of work she came home, got ALL of us house dogs EXCEPT Barney and Harvey and took us all over to work.
Yup... I am sitting in a expen over here at work, using Mom's laptop to write this. I am stuck with Ali. Right next to me is Toto and Georgie. Crystal is in with Thomas, the old rescue poodle. Poor Riley is in a covered run INSIDE the kennel, hehehe! At least we get to see people coming and going and we get to play with the daycare dogs.
Mother brought over those camping beds she got for us. Actually, they are pretty neat. They are JUST like folding chairs with canvas "seats". Mom tosses an old blanket on the seat to make them more comfy. We ALL love them so they have become a special treat for us.
Good thing we have SOMETHING for a special treat. The only one over here that gives us lots of treats is Julie and Julie will be going along with Harvey and Barney and Mom.
Would you believe Mom isn't even going to leave until Saturday morning. We had to come over to work early so she could finish cleaning the house before she goes. Actually, she also wants to make sure Barney will be okay sleeping in the bed with Julie, he usually sleeps in his crate at home cuz he and I do not like sharing Mom OR her bed.
I certainly hope they will be bringing me a really, really nice souvenier!!!

Another LONG weekend!!

Today Mom took us down to the lab pen, in spite of the fact that she had just mopped the floors and the whole outside world is covered in MUD.
It was 46 degrees (in the shade!), and the grass was nice and green and we thought it was labor day, NOT New Year's day, BOL. We were all racing around, panting, and eating that nice, green grass.
When Mom was working up the photos she noticed those from New Year's Day LAST year right on the computer. Sooo, she took one of those for each of us and then put one from today right under that one. What a difference!!!!
But, bad things are still going on here. Today Mom is cleaning...that kind of cleaning she does when she is going somewhere and doesn't want to come home to a dirty house. I am 100% sure she is going somewhere, too bad I am NOT 100% sure I am going along, too.
More examples... MY thundershirt and MY jacket are still in the dog jacket box but Harvey and Barneys fleece suits are in a canvas bag in the guest room. (That is the "holding area" for the stuff she is taking with her. She put in the bigger overnight motel crates, not my little one. She is talking about grooming both Harvey AND Barney on Friday, but didn't mention me getting groomed at all.
It seems to be looking less and less likely that I will be going on vacation this Winter... I will be SOOOO MAD I may totally snub both Mom and Julie when they get home!!!
Oh well, Happy New Year everypup!

Something's happening here...

Mom had today off and spent the whole day at home. I watched.
First, while it was still warm this morning she cleaned out the car. She even used the vacuum cleaner which she NEVER does UNLESS I am going on vacation with her!
After it was all clean I watched her put some crates in there and some blankets and other traveling stuff. I was getting soo excited trying to figure out where we could possibly be going.
When the car was done she came inside and got out her canvas bags. When the canvas bags come out I KNOW we are going on vacation!!!!
While she was packing them I heard her on the phone talking to the handler guy. She was talking about Barney and Harvey going along... hmmm, they must be going with me, too.
Next, she got out the travel collars and leads. Now I was getting scared cuz she got out one for Barney and one for Harvey. I didn't notice MINE!!!
Next she filled a bag with our overnight stuff. What's this...she put in the BIG pee belts, not my little one. Mom, I didn't gain that much weight!!!
What was really scary was watching her pack Barney and Harvey's pajamas... now I am really worried!!!
(to be continued)