Missing diaries...

It has come to my attention that except for Toto and the Beanster, NONE of us have had very frequent entries in our diaries lately. Mom says it is because she is very busy with all the vacationing doggies in the kennel and all the Summer grooming but we all know, she NEVER helped us write our diaries while she was at work, unless it was a very special occasion.
I now know the truth! It seems that those chickies are SOOO interesting Mom is completely obsessed with them and spends about an hour every single night, just sitting on OUR doggy porch and watching them. At least WE are out there with her so we do get the occasional pat on the head, or time in her lap in the case of Riley who just jumps on up when he needs some loving.
I must admit, those chickies are pretty cute and they sure do grab our attention. Even I have been known to chase them when they race up to the fence and stare at me. How can I NOT chase them when they do that???
Chickies aside, did you know that Julia took me to Mom's obedience class?? I learned lots with her but there is a problem, or might be a problem. Yesterday was supposed to be the last night and Mom had to postpone it cuz it was too hot and rainy. Well, now it is scheduled for tomorrow night and it's supposed to rain all day AND night tomorrow. And, if it doesn't, Julia has field hockey practice so she can't take me anyway. BOOOO.
Mom says we will still get our graduation certificate! Whew, I was so worried that after I put in ALL that work and even did the stupid trick week, I wasn't going to graduate. That would have been awful!!!

I LOVE concerts on the beach!!!

Mom and Julia were working HARD all day long today, in fact, they worked so hard they forgot all about us! Finally, Mom gave up working cuz the chickie house wasn't cooperating with them, and they crashed in the house.
Meanwhile, Julia was invited to a picnic concert at a nearby beach. Sooo, she BEGGED her Mom to let me go along. Finally, her Mom said okay, and off we went.
I am here to tell you I was the HIT of the party!!! Everyone held me, and, it didn't matter that I missed my supper cuz I got plenty to eat, BOL!!!
It was much better than the chicken swap that Julia brought me to yesterday. ALL the other dogs at the swap were big, farm type dogs and I felt a bit out of place. Well, mostly. Me and Julia and Mom went over to the farm owners house and he brought out a LABRADOR for us to visit!!! She looked JUST like Gator and Aligator, and low and behold, Mom told me she was Gator's daughter and Aligators sister!!!
Well, gotta go now, Julia just told me that I was spending the night here, too!!! MORE fun!!

I must be Cinderella???

Yesterday Mom and Julia went shopping for the WHOLE long day!! We had to stay home, IN OUR CRATES, cuz it was too hot for much of anything else.
Fortunately for me, Mom brought me home a glass slipper!!! Seriously, she really did! She found it in the parking lot, she says, but I suspect she stole it right off some poor baby's foot.
It is a pretty, clear plastic sandal with a big, poofy flower on it. When Mom found it she told Julia it was PERFECT for a photo shoot with me. Julia was skeptical, actually, she couldn't believe Mom actually picked it up and took it home. HEY, Mom said it was lying there when they got there in the morning and it was still lying there when they went back to the car in the late afternoon, SOOO......
Anyway, Mom was too busy today and Julia wasn't here so we didn't get the photos done anyway. Mom also got ME a whole bunch of new pretty ribbons and bows for my hair. (cuz I am the cutest, BOL!) Maybe she will take me to work tomorrow and clean me up and then dress me up when Julia comes to take me to obedience class on Tuesday.
OH DRATS... there is NO class on Tuesday cuz of the Holiday. Darn it all!!

Busier Tuesday!!!!!

And, I thought Sunday was busy! Today I was minding my own business, sitting out in the dog yard enjoying the cool breezes when along came my Julia. I forgot school got out yesterday, BOL!
Turns out Mom invited her to join her obedience class and she gave her a choice of Crystal, Toto, or ME! Of course, Julia, being a very, very smart girl, (she made HIGH HONORS on her report card!), chose ME! Mom told her I needed a bath first, so she came down at noon to get me all spiffy before the evening class.
Mom said because Julia was so smart, she could bathe me all by herself. She did, and it went FINE and DANDY! Mom did a bit of trimming, then Julia did my bows and nails and tail. Then, we got to play for the whole rest of the afternoon.
Finally, it was quitting time and we all went along home. Mom fed us dogs and then me and Toto and Julia and Mom went down to the big yard. We had a picnic supper, then Julia taught me some agility before the regular class. I did the tunnel AND a special kind of jump like a horse jump. I did GOOD cuz Julia was treating me with some string cheese.
After that I rested a bit until the class came, then Julia and I learned lots of obedience. Tonight we worked on walking, sitting, downs AND staying. I did GOOD, maybe even high honors!!!
But, the best is yet to come, after class Julia texted her Mom and asked if I could spend the night... she said YES!! So, now I am at Julia's, watching some videos, then sleeping over!!!
An absolutely PERFECT day!!!

BUSY Sunday!!

Wow, we sure had a busy day today! First Mom had to work, but as soon as she came home we took Smokey Cat and went off down into the lab pen. We all played and played and played with him down there. It was a very nice day and Mom was relaxed cuz now Smokey knows his way around outside so she didn't worry about him going over the fence and into the road.
After playing, we had lunch with Mom, then she put the kayaks on the car! I was hoping Julia would come along but she had to go to a foot race today cuz her Mom AND her brother were running in it. I knew we were going with someone, I just didn't know who!!
After a while, along came Mom's worker, Laurie. She drove up to the house instead of over to work, so I guessed she was going with us!
OH NO, that must mean Hilda is gonna get to go cuz Hilda lives with Laurie when she isn't here, and I was SURE Laurie would take her. Fortunately, Mom was on MY side and mentioned it was too hot for Hilda this afternoon. Whew!
Soo, they talked about Harvey, but then Laurie said she had NEVER been in a kayak before so Mom suggested I would be a perfect choice. Yeah, I have taught TONS of people how to kayak, BOL!!!!
We went up to our favorite pond and NO ONE was there except us. After a fashion, Laurie figured out how to get into the kayak and off we went. I was pretty nervous...I was nervous cuz she was nervous and it was catchy! I kept whining to Mom cuz I wanted to go with her but she wouldn't let me!!
Finally, Laurie and I got it together and we had a GREAT time. We saw the geese and a turtle and a bunch of HUGE frogs, almost as big as I am!!
On the way home we stopped for ICE CREAM!! Laurie got too much so she gave me a whole bunch of it and it dripped all over me, BOL! Beanie and Toto helped me eat the sugar cone. We LOVE those sugar cones!!!

Sailing in the yard...

Today Mom and Julia decided to have a yard sale. Soo, they dragged all this stuff outside and got some chairs and even brought us dogs along for company, I guess.
First was Beanie and me. I worked at the computer... it was hard work cuz I had to keep a record of everything we had for sale and cross it off when it sold. Whew!
But, the good news...they were bored so we had lots and lots of great food to eat. Julia was pretty hungry I guess...between her and me, hehehe, we ate a WHOLE BOX of some new cereal Mom got for her, called KRAVE or something like that. I CRAVED it alright!!!
All in all it was a pretty good day. Mom got LOTS of money from the yard sale cuz we helped, BOL! I was a bit tired cuz Julia slept over last night. It was the first time she slept in our house (we slept in the tent before), so all the dogs (and cats) disturbed her a bit. At least I think they did cuz she kept waking up and disturbing ME cuz I was sleeping with her!!!
Tonight we are resting and Julia went home. Her town still has a WHOLE week of school left! The other school in OUR town is closed already. I HATE school!

A quiet weekend.

The last few weekends have been crazy around here. TWO weekends in a row we went camping in the lab pen, and THREE weekends in a row we went off kayaking up at the pond. Julia was here and we had loads and loads of fun.
Not this weekend. It rained all night Friday night and it POURED all day long yesterday. It was sooo wet that I got soaked when I was peeing on the porch, I didn't even step off into the REAL rain, bol.
Needless to say, we spent most of the day cuddled up in our dog beds watching TV with Mom.
This morning the sun was peeking out, quite a surprise since the rain WAS forecast to continue. But, it was cold and windy, too windy to go kayaking and too cold to go for a hike with Julia.
We did go play in the lab yard...it is better down there if it's not too hot, it keeps the bugs down. And, when we got back the sun was shining nicely on the porch so I chose a clean, dry place and took a nap in the sun while Mom cleaned the house.
I can't WAIT until Mom goes back to work tomorrow cuz I am all tired out from doing NUTHIN all weekend, BOL!

Numbers again...

This morning Mom noticed some interesting visitor numbers again. Beanie had exactly 13600, Toto had exactly 13000, I had exactly 6400 and Riley had exactly 2500. Neat, huh? The others all had just "normal" numbers.
We had another camping weekend with Julia. Of course, I was invited and got to sleep in the new tent. I was a bit worried that they were going to take me home cuz my cough was back and I couldn't stop coughing!! Sadly, Mom was out of my steroid cough medicine so she tried some "regular" cough pills. They DID NOT work!! It is only really bad at night so I still got to go kayaking.
This time it was pretty hot so they decided to leave Zena home since she is black and gets really hot fast! Me, I am smart enough to go down under the cowl in the shade so I could still go.
We had a good time, especially when I discovered Mom set her brownie down whilst they were eating lunch. Mmmmm, it was really GOOD!! I took it over in the bushes to eat it so no one else would know I had it. Mom discovered the empty wrapper over there, BOL!
Julia and I caught some HUGE tadpoles, some regular sized ones, and one small froggy. She didn't get anymore salimandors since she still has plenty of them at home.
BTW... those eggs we got the first time are finally hatched!! Now to wait until they grow a bit to discover what they are!
When we got home we played in the big yard while Julia and Mom worked in the pond and in the garden. We also got some watermelon, which was pretty good!!!

Camping AGAIN!!!

Mother just told me that we are going camping AGAIN this weekend. She said Julia was coming and probably Skye was coming, too! Of course Julia invited ME!!
We are pretty much doing the same stuff as last weekend... sleeping in the tent, kayaking, eating, and eating, and doing some more agility stuff. Mom said we could probably go to a different kayaking pond cuz that one is getting boring.
Last weekend me and Julia woke up to a FLAT air mattress! Apparently it has a big leak. So, when Mom went to the big town to shop today she was going to get us a brand new one BUT, the store didn't have any. Imagine that, they advertised them ON SALE, and then they didn't have any at all. The man told Mom they were coming in next week. Big help that is, BOL!
Anyhow, Mom said she might find one in a store here in our small town, but, if not, she will blow it up really full and we will be sleeping by the time the air all falls out and won't notice it, or that is her theory.
I do not believe in theories, by the way!!!

MY camping trip!!!

Somehow, Mom was toooo tired to help me write MY diary last night. Soo here goes, better late than never!
Of course I was invited along for the kayak trip. Julia wanted to take her new "favorite", Zena, but she had it all figured out. Since Mom takes both Toto and Beanie, Julia decided she could take both me and Zena. What could Mom say but okay, BOL!!!
So, I taught Zena all about kayaking. I also just nudged her a tiny bit when she was bravely stepping up on the cowl, it wasn't my fault she lost her balance and fell in. It was okay, she did have the life jacket on, BOL.
We had a nice ride, but it was pretty hot. We stopped for lunch in the shade, which was nice. There were a ton of really pretty butterflies there, too, so we tried to catch them. Not gonna happen!!!
The good part was, although Zena was Julia's new favorite, Julia found out that Mom was right. Zena is NOT a snuggler, hehehe! I am the absolute best at that. Zena did her usual and slept down at the bottom of the bed, all by herself. Her loss, my gain!!!
Oh yeah... I forgot to tell you that Julia's frog eggs from our last trip ARE still alive and about ready to hatch.
This time Mom told her she could bring a baby turtle home with her, knowing full well that in the hot weather those babies would be super fast. Sure enough, the turtles DID win but we caught a leopard frog and a regular one AND some tadpoles AND some salamanders. Mom gave her a HUGE storage box to keep them in so she was very happy. She brought pond water, rocks, pieces of wood and some plants to keep them happy. Mom said she was glad they weren't staying with us.