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Byron's Day

Spring!

Winter is my favorite season - wonderfully cold and invigorating! But I like spring and fall too. Now that the weather's warmer they bring out the hose at daycare and I get wet chasing it around!! And the nights are still cold enough that I love sleeping on the patio until Mom calls me in!

Lurch has turned out to be a decent kitten-brother. The only problem is he doesn't know how to get out of my way, so Mom's always having to stop me from stepping on him. Hey, not my fault he's a gimp - what am I supposed to do, look down?

We had a scary thing happen last week. My neighbor rott Bear caught Spooky and really hurt her. I was outside when it happened. I should have protected her, but it all happened so fast! All I knew was there was all this noise, and when I came over to check it out, Spooky was on the ground and Bear was standing over her. Mom ran out and made us all leave Spook alone. Then Mom drove off with Spooky, and when she came home later Spook wasn't with her. Mom says she's ok and getting better, but I haven't seen her since that night. I hope she comes home soon. I think she wrote a diary entry with all the details, but since I can't read I don't know what it says.

I don't hear as well now. Mom sometimes has to clap her hands to get my attention. I don't hear the garage door or her keys in the lock, so I'm pretty surprised when she comes in. And sometimes I sleep so deeply that if she comes over to pet me, I don't hear her coming and jump when she touches me. She got a dog whistle, so maybe that'll help. Someone also suggested she use a penlight to get my attention (not while I'm sleeping, of course). Guess I'm just getting older, even though I feel very young. Otherwise I'm in great health with lots of energy! Whenever Mom spends time with the cats, I pick up my stuffed cow and shake it so she knows it's time to pay attention to me!

Dear Diary

Just realized I haven't posted in awhile. I've been a little sick these past couple of days. Saturday I was eating dinner, and a piece of bone got caught between my teeth. See, I have this double canine on one side, and stuff gets in there really easily. The bone cut my gum and I was very unhappy. Mom gave me some tooth numbing stuff, and then just fed me ground meat for a couple of days.

Tuesday I went to daycare. They were shoveling snow and it was obviously my job to bark at the shovel all day. Between that and my usual playing, I was plumb tuckered out at the end of the day. It's been a LONG time since I was that tired! I just went home and crashed. I had no desire to go out, eat, play or anything but sleep. But Mom had made a delish meal for Rumble, which he then didn't want. It was pork liver pureed with some ground bone. Yum (as she gags)! I did eat that. Unfortunately it didn't sit well and so yesterday I had, well, "issues" all over the carpet. Fortunately Mom knew I was just sick and didn't scold me, but I felt bad because she had to spend a lot of time with the carpet steamer.

Oh well, every now and then everyone gets sick, right? So it's not a big deal, but hopefully it's over now and I can get back to my energetic, loving, sometimes pain-in-the-butt self!

Attitude

Y'know what, I'm tired of getting pushed around. I have to do tricks for my treats; the cats don't. Mom doesn't scold Rumble if he tries to steal my food; I get scolded for chasing him, protecting my bowl too much, or trying to steal Lurch's food. I'm supposed to protect the house, but if I mouth the cable guy's leg, I get thrown outside. I want to go out, and in, and out, and in... and Mom says no just 'cause she doesn't want to be like a pogo stick getting on and off the couch. I can't bark outside after 10:00, and if I bark "too much" during the day I get scolded too. She feeds me wonderful messy things, but if I take them to my treat spot on the carpet, where she always lets me have my dry treats, she scolds me for THAT. Like I know anything about cleaning up raw meat stains. And the carpet's a mess anyway.

I"M TIRED OF GETTING SCOLDED FOR BEING A DOG!!! AND I have to go to the groomer tomorrow and the vet next week!


There. Thank you. I feel better now.

I'm dealing with Mom by ignoring her and making her think I'm deaf. She doesn't like it, but if she thinks I can't help it, she swallows her frustration tee hee. Of course I'm not sure I really *do* hear her all the time, but that's neither here nor there.

When she plays with the cats I go get a toy and make her play with me. When she feeds Lurch something I want, I go into that room and stare at her. She just sends me away, but I hold my ground as long as I can without getting a swat. When she won't let me out, I go stand by her, put my nose in her face and whimper, convincing her I really need to go. Then I flop down in the snow right in front of her, ha.

I also make her open the car windows when it's 10 degrees F out. At 45 mph the wind chill is a little much even for me, so I lie down on the seat and she closes the window again. Time to pop back up and stand by the window!!!

When she's going out without me, I try to shove my way out the door.

It's so much fun to feel young and be able to be a pain in the neck again! :)