Camping!!!

Today when Mom got out of work Julia showed up with her camping stuff. Mom was mowing the lawns (with the NEW lawn mower!), so she was finished quickly. Skye couldn't come this time but she and Julia and Mom are going to a real camping place pretty soon.
First, they went uptown and, would you believe, they got us a NEW TENT? It is pretty big but is smaller than the old one. The old one got broken so Mom is saving it for an emergency, BOL. Anyway, they took it down to the lab yard and set it up. Us dogs went inside and we gave it our paw of approval. It still fits our beds plus their air mattresses so that is fine.
In fact, right now I am writing this from inside the new tent!!! We are sleeping in it tonight and maybe even tomorrow night, too.
Tomorrow Mom is working in the morning, but right after we are going kayaking again! I can't wait! Mom is making a picnic to take with us again and I am gonna help Julia catch a baby turtle! Watch for pictures tomorrow!!!

An ALMOST perfect weekend...

Well, I had FUN this weekend! Sadly, Louie and Nina didn't make it over from Maine, but Mom still had Julia come so we did still have lots and lots of fun! Julia had a track meet on Saturday so she couldn't come until afternoon but that was fine! By Saturday my tummy was all better so that was good, too.
When Julia got here we all went down to the campsite and had a great time playing with her. We played with the agility equipment, too. Then, she and Mom cooked dinner and we all helped them eat.
After dinner, we had a nice campfire and we had our nice bunk beds to lie in and watch it. It was chilly, so we pretty much snuggled. Mom said we could ALL sleep in the tent. I wasn't too sure if she hadn't lost her mind. Fortunately, it was still kind of light when we all piled in. Fortunately, cuz as soon as Mom and Julia realized how CRAZY it was going to be, it was still light enough to take some of the others back to the house for the night, BOL!
So, in the end it was me and Toto and Ali and Zena and Crystal. I'm not sure ANY of us got much sleep, but we survived! The tree frogs were great to listen too. The chicken episode was pretty bad, but I will let Toto tell about that since it was HIS fault. No blood was shed, though!
Today we had a great kayaking trip, but I will let Zena tell about that cuz it was her very, very first trip in a kayak. Ali can tell about kayaking, too, cuz she helped Zena learn about how to do it.
Now, I am heading to bed in Mom's nice waterbed. No mosquitoes, no tree frogs screeching, no chickens clucking, etc!!!

I'm SICK!!!

Oh no... last night I started puking and puking, right on Mom's bed! She wasn't totally happy so she put me in my crate.
About three am, she decided to check on me and I had diarrhea ALL OVER me, my crate and the floor in front of it. Being in the middle of the night, Mom took me back to her bed.
Of course, she went off to sleep and left me to fend for myself. I kept having the diarrhea, but now it was only blood, and I was very,very dehydrated, too.
This morning Mom woke me up and decided I needed to get to the vets immediately! So, now I am up at the vets, getting IV's.
Mom says I shouldn't worry...she knows I am sick cuz I ate too much fresh grass last night when we were running in the field. She said it has happened to Toto and Cryssie before but because they are bigger they don't get dehydrated and are fine the next morning.
Meanwhile, I am hoping she is right cuz tomorrow is my camping trip with Louie and Nina!!!!!

Troubles, troubles...

Well, it was a beautiful weekend, the nicest so far. What did we do, you ask? We sat around the house waiting for Mother to take us out. She didn't, we waited in vain!
After work on Saturday she decided to mow the lawn since it was looking like a hayfield. Well, started the mower and headed out of the shed and the PTO BROKE. So, Mom spent about an hour messing with that, she thought the belt fell off again, but no, she never did figure it out so had to call a friend to help. He couldn't get her until Sunday so she moved the rest of the camping stuff down into the field. Then, she messed around in the garden, in the house, and in the Summer kitchen and it was time for bed.
Sunday Mom got out of work early so she decided to saw down some broken lilac bushes while she waited for her friend. We watched out the window. When she was finished, she had lunch and, dare I say it, a NAP! Her friend came and it took them both TWO HOURS to fix the broken spring on the mower. He said it wouldn't last so Mom started carefully mowing. She got ALL the way to the last little section and poof, it broke again. Her friend had given her another spring he made to try so she decided to change it and found out the spring was fine, now the bolt that holds it all together broke. It is some special kind of bolt, so she had to order it, of course.
Now, she has decided since that mower is way, way old and most likely is going to break again and again, she will get a new one. So, she spent the rest of the night studying new ones.
Meanwhile, she left us all to fend for our own devices out in the dog yard. At least the weather was PERFECT!!
Now, she has to shop for a mower, mow the lawn, get all the food stuff and make salads and stuff for camping and work all day every day. Tonight she headed out to check out some mowers. As soon as she got almost all the way to town a HUGE downpour came up and lasted forever so she finally came home, having achieved NOTHING! Oh well, at least I got to ride along, BOL!

KAYAKING!!!!!!

As soon as Mom got out of work, (early!!), she packed her lunch and got me and Toto and Ali and put on our kayaking collars. YES!!! We are going!!!
It was mighty cloudy, but not too cold so Mom wore her jacket and made sure Julia had one when we picked her up. Off we went! By now me and Toto know the way to the pond so we were all excited.
When we got there NO ONE was at our pond. It was a bit chilly, but we really didn't care cuz it is sooo fun. Mom and Julia decided to paddle ALL the way around the whole pond... much smaller this time cuz they let four feet of water out for some reason. We always go to the left, dunno why, but it works out cuz the sun stays out of our eyes that way.
We saw a million turtles sunning themselves on all the exposed stumps. Even MORE came out when the sun finally beat out the clouds. It was HOT then!!! We stopped for lunch at the very back end of the pond. We had to wade thru the mud to get up to the dry places to sit and eat our lunch...I mean THEIR lunch, BOL!
I was happily messing around when suddenly, I smelled something in the woods. I kept trying to sneak off and see what it was but Mom was askerdid it was a bear or a coyote or something, I think, and she wouldn't let me go there. Soo, I amused myself by chasing Toto and Ali up and down the shore, then bugged Mom and Julia for some of their lunch. I had some bologna and cheese sandwich AND a fortune cookie. I forgot Mom had Chinese last night with Susie and I LOVE fortune cookies!
After we waded back thru the mud to the kayaks, we paddled back to the beginning and then I got put in my crate cuz I went over to see if some people needed me to help them fish. I couldn't help it if I had to bark a bit...I needed to say hello to them, right???
Oh well, I was tired and it was nice and warm in the car, and besides, Ali was in the crate with me to keep me company.
Finally, Julia and Toto were done hunting critters and Mom was done loading the kayaks so we took Julia home and we came home. Would you believe Mom even let us run down in the lab pen when we got home??? TWO good things in one day!!!

BUSY day but NO KAYAKING!

Wow, I am sooo tired I am glad Mom is going to work tomorrow morning...I couldn't survive if she had another day off, BOL!
We pretty much got up at the same time cuz us dogs are creatures of habit. So, of course MOm had to get up, too! First thing she decided to start on the Summer kitchen cuz it was clammy and cloudy and wet outside. Of course, we helped! She got all the kayaking stuff into the car and got one of the HUGE boxes filled with camping stuff. She used the lawn tractor to haul the wagon down to the back field!!! The other box wasn't here yet, so that was the end of that project.
Next, she mowed the lawns but first, used the tractor to drag the kayaks from the back shed up to the car, then she put the racks on and then put the kayaks on, too. Me and Toto were watching from the watch chair, and we were SURE we were going kayaking!!! Nope!
After she mowed the lawns she took the inside house plants out to the porch, then went to the garden and planted the tomatoes. We don't have a food garden, Mom only plants cherry tomatoes in the flower garden at work, then she eats them for lunch!
Ohhhh, I forgot... before planting she took us all down to the lab pen and we ran and ran and ran. She got us a new pool cuz ours was holey, so she filled that and we played in it for a while, too. It was kind of fun having Tanner back to play with us! BTW, Mom DID groom him last night, good thing cuz Susie had to come back early so she got him today.
Finally, the FedEX man came along with the other deck box so Mom put that together out on the lawn. She said the black flies are here!!!!
We stayed inside so they wouldn't bite us, hehehe! Susie came along to get Tanner so Mom invited her to have Chinese with her. That took forever, and we all watched the Derby. Mom's horse came in SECOND!!!
Then, Susie left and Mom finished putting the box together. It was cold again so the black flies left!
While she was out there Sarah came along with Julia, so Mom made a date with Julia to go kayaking TOMORROW at NOON!!! Yippee, I am going, too!! Julia gets to pick her choice to go with her but me and Toto will be going with Momsie!
Now we are all relaxing.

A WHOLE day off!!!

Wow, Mom just told me she isn't going to work tomorrow! It will be the first day in about THREE WEEKS, or maybe even more! She says that is an issue when you own the business, BOL!
Anyway, usually she gets out early on Wednesday but this week Laurie couldn't come in so she had to work all day so Laurie said she would work Saturday AND Sunday. Mom figured she would probably die or something with TWO days off in a row so she is going to work Sunday and take our camping weekend Sunday off instead. Works for me!
BUT, Tanner stopped in for a weekend visit and it turns out, he really needs a haircut, so I guess Mom will do that tomorrow. She was going to do it on Sunday while she was at work but she can't stand to look at his hairy body until then, hehehe! She was even talking about doing it TONIGHT!!!
Anyhow, me and Toto are hoping that we can go try out the kayaks tomorrow. Mom has to mow the lawns, but that won't take all day and it's supposed to be nice. I sure hope we can do that!
And, we are going to help Mom take the camping stuff down into the lab pen. She got some HUGE Deck Boxes to store the stuff down there cuz she says by the time she lugs everything down there, she is so tired she can't enjoy the camping.
Well, gotta go... Mom is going to groom Tanner right now!

Maypole dance???? MOTHER!!!!

This morning Mom got us up bright and early. She put flowers in our hair, flowers everywhere, and attached our long leashes.
Outside we went, to discover a HUGE pole stuck in the ground. Sure enough, the pole had flowers in it's hair, and flowers everywhere, too.
Mother began attaching our long leashes to the top of the pole, and we all stood in a circle around that pole.
Next, she turned on some music on her iPod, and....
Thankfully, I woke up!!!!!

CAMPING, already!!!

Wow, Toto told me that Mom told him that we are going camping in three weeks. I don't know about that...it was only 20 degrees last night, I sure hope Mom has a heater in the tent, BOL!!
Well I guess Mom and Nina's Mom were worried, too, we were going way up into the White Mountains with Louie and Nina's Mom. My Mom started getting a bit nervous. First of all, there is probably still SNOW up there in the Mtns... that is MIGHTY early. And, what about the bears???? Toto is askerdid of the bears. Not me, hehehe!
Nina's Mom called the campgrounds and it turns out, they aren't even OPEN until Memorial Day Weekend. That is out for us because Mom is too busy in the kennel to take some days off. Soo, they were both searching around for another place to go and suddenly, it came to Mom... we can camp in our lab yard again!!!
So, they have decided that is a plan. If it should turn out cold and rainy they won't lose their reservation deposit, and they can even camp inside our house! If they camp HERE, Mom can stay even longer cuz she won't have to pay for one of the girls to come take care of OUR dogs that don't go with us. And, both Julia and Skye can camp with us and not have to miss any school. And, we can go kayaking cuz our pond is nearby. And, we can use OUR firewood cuz we will still be in NH so won't bring any bugs into Maine. And, we can buy MORE food cuz we won't have to pay gas to travel way up to the White Mtns. And, ALL of us dogs can go, not just me and Toto. (Although, I don't know, is that a good thing or a bad thing????)
At any rate, I am looking forward to camping again, even if it IS in our own backyard. And, Mom says, maybe, if she can walk good, we can hike up Mt. Ascutney. That is fun, too, I guess??? But, we WILL go kayaking and have a picnic on the island. Hope the black flies won't be here yet!!!

Whew, saved by the forceps!!!

As promised Mom took me along to work today in hopes of giving me a haircut and a bubble bath. BUT, last night she noticed my cheek was a bit puffy, so, of course, she looked at my teeth.
One of them, the tiny little pointy one right behind my canine tooth on the top, called a premolar, I think, looked funny. I'm not sure what she meant by funny, but she touched it and first of all, it wiggled alot!!! Second of all, it HURT like crazy! I screamed and jumped down, which of course, made her look again. This time she noticed that I DO NOT have tartar on my teeth and they are surprisingly shiny, crisply white, except that one was kind of grayish.
So, when we got to work she called the vets next door to ask about having it pulled. They told her around $200. EEEK!!!
While they were on a break Mom asked Tonya to help her pull out my tooth. I cringed, but Tonya quickly agreed to help. Mom assured her (and me!) that she would only try ONCE, and if it didn't come right out she would call the vet back.
Okay, after their break we go to the grooming room. Mom places me on the table, Tonya affixes my head in a death grip, and Mom picks up her forceps. MOM...those are what you pull hair out of ears with, do you REALLY think those will work???? I wanna go to the vets, PLEASE????
Mom opens my mouth, puts the forceps on my tooth and quickly, before I even knew what was happening, gently pulled downward.
Meanwhile, Tonya and I were waiting for her to do something, anything. Mom glanced down at the forceps and, low and behold, there was MY tooth!!!! She showed it to me and Tonya and we were, quite frankly, amazed. It didn't even HURT!!!
Mom had Tonya bathe me next so I wouldn't have time to think about my missing tooth. Meanwhile, Mom looked at that tooth and told Tonya that if she knew the root was that long she would NEVER have pulled it out herself. Now she tells us that!!!
The good news... all the swelling is now gone from my cheek and I am freshly groomed and bathed. AND...I could even eat lunch with Mom and Tonya and it didn't even hurt.
Mom and I figure we now need to find some FUN way to spend the $200 she saved!!!!
Oh, yeah, forgot to mention... that pudge WAS all my Winter hair. After my haircut I am once again svelte and handsome!