Labor day

First off, three day weekends rock. Mom and dad have so much time to do stuff with us. This weekend we drove back to northern Indiana to visit the family. Akera was a big (and I mean big on many levels) hit with everyone. She behaved like a princess and had a blast playing with Gabe and I. She also met Violet, (a feist/lab mix), Lady (a Jack Russell), Jake (a german shepherd/lab mix), Frank (a dachshund), Rudy (a pomeranian), Sadie (a shepherd mix) and Jack, (my other brother who lives with mom's aunt). Jack looks nothing like either Gabe or me.

She also got to go to mom's cousin's birthday party with mom and grandma - they left Gabe and me behind. (The nerve) and she met the other grandma's horses Keista and Shiquito. Akera's almost as big as quito, because he's a small pony.

I got back at Akera for that trip to the birthday party though. Dad drove over to his dad's house to visit for a while and only took me with him. Ah, sweet undivided attention.

Darn it

Sometimes I wish I were as tall as Akera... Times like this morning when mom walked out of the kitchen to do something and left her two pieces of toast sitting on the counter. Of course Akera snatched one. Mom wouldn't have even noticed either if Akera hadn't walked into the dining room and proceeded to chomp and gulp the thing down right in front of her.

Great dane fact of the day: Great danes, while large and capable of sneakiness, are not good food snatchers.

Road trip

We're going away this weekend. I know it because mom was making lists this morning and she packed my traveling bag with treats and leashes and bowls and stuff. I can't wait. I think we're going back to visit Gabe. Too much excitement.

Akera wasn't sure what the bag meant, or why I was so excited when mom started packing it, but she perked up when she saw mom put a container of dog treats in it.

Joke via the Publicity Hound

An oldie, but a goodie... and so accurate.

Dogs think, "You feed me, you take care of my every need, you must
be a God!"

Cats think,"You feed me, you take care of my every need, I must be
a God!"

5 days and counting

Only 5 days until I get to go back to Plymouth to visit the grandmas and grandpas. Unfortunately one of my grandmas will be visiting her family in Minnesota, so I won't be able to see her, but I'll get to see the other three. Mom says it's going to be Labor Day weekend so that means we'll be there for three whole days. She's got the weekend cram packed with stuff to do, so I think I'm going to be spending a lot of time with Grandpa, dad and Gabe... oh and Akera. This will be her first trip back to my second favoritest place on earth (the first being home of course) so she'd better behave.

Gabe did come down to visit me this weekend. I hadn't seen him in such a long time that it was tails wagging, crazy running and lots of play biting and growling. In fact, when he first got there and grandpa got out of his car I hopped in the open door and jumped into the back seat to say hi right away. We wrestled in there a little bit and then Gabe jumped out. Boy was he surprised to see Akera... and she was shocked to see him. We're now going to call Gabe "mini me." He and Akera are two peas in a pod and they had so much fun running and running around the yard. I ran with them for a while and then came back to sit by mom and dad.

Great dane fact of the day: When a great dane decides she wants out of the mud room to sleep in mom and dad's room at night, she's capable of quite a hissy fit and she will pull some of the wood trim off the door.

No Truman?

Last weekend Truman's parents visited mom and dad and they didn't bring Truman with them. I was miffed about this so only got a little spastic about them stopping by. How could they make the hours long drive from Columbus and not bring my best friend? Pretty soon I'm going to forget what he smells like.

Akera really, really like Kevin and Melanie. She couldn't get enoug of them. In fact, when they were sitting on the couch she grabbed the peanut butter Kong that mom dug out from under the end table earlier in the day and climbed onto the couch between them and flopped down. I know that was a run-on sentence, but that's really the only way to describe what it was like. Melanie found the whole Akera thing hilarious and actually encouraged her to sit by them. There's no accounting for taste.

Anyway, Melanie works for a dog training school in Columbus, Ohio and went to their store the next day and bought another Kong for Akera... where's the love for me I ask?

Nonstop

The fun just never ends around here. Zoey went home yesterday (but not before scaring the bejesus out of mom by having a siezure in the kitchen). However, Grandma came down to spend some time with mom. Mom hasn't been feeling well lately, and as much as I hate to admit this, sometimes dogs just can't do the same stuff that mom's can. Anway, I was kind of miffed at grandma because she didn't bring Gabe and I could smell him on her stuff.

Akera really like Grandma, she spent a lot of time snuffling in Grandma's neck and ears whenever she sat down. Grandma says that Akera is just like Gabe, only lots bigger.

Mom said that Truman's parents are coming to visit next weekend, but that Truman's staying in Ohio... don't these people know that they must bring their dogs with them when they come visit? Gabe and Truman are two of my most favoritest dogs.

Great dane fact of the day: Pitting 1 small beagle-australian shepherd cross and 1 large-sized lab-sharpei cross against a great dane = 1 extra-large great dane yelping and running as the two holy terrors streak around the yard and house after her. Yet she always comes back for more.

House guests

Akera and I have had enough of our houseguests. Both Blue and Zoey are pretty rough players, as in they like to bite hard when they play. Just a couple of days ago Zoey ran across the yard at full tilt and body slammed Akera hard enough she tripped to the ground. I'm pretty good at defending myself. While I don't bite them back, I make it abundantly clear by showing my teeth and producing the meanest growl ever that I don't appreciate the rough playing. Poor Akera though, she's kind of a big chicken so she just runs.

Great dane fact of the day: My sister is afraid of the rain. When we went outside this morning Akera didn't want to do her business and then when she was done she ran back to mom and stood right next to her under the umbrella.

Dogyard 400

I love running. I especially love running when Akera and Blue and Zoey are all chasing me. But what I love best about running is that I can corner better than any of the dogs in the yard. That means that when it seems like they're all going to catch up to me and bowl me over, I can turn tail and run in another direction. My outside running is a combination of zoomies and flat out running... you can tell the difference because when I'm zooming my tail is kind of arched up and out and down in a circle and my butt tucks. When I'm really, really racing my tail is streaking in a straight line behind me and my tongue is hanging out flapping in the wind. Either way I have a huge smile on my face.

Great Dane fact of the day: Small mixed-breed dogs take 5 steps for every 1 great dane step.

Leader of the pack

Yes indeedy, I'm the leader of the pack around the house. This week my pack has expanded to include Zoey - one of my friends from the old Plex. Zoey's dad went to Canada to visit friends and family so mom and dad agreed to dogsit. That means there are four dogs in my house right now. Mom's getting a little frazzled. I try to keep everyone in order, but I think Zoey has fallen in love with Akera so it's tough to keep the activity level down.

I think part of the reason mom's frazzled is because Zoey has to have so much medicine. She's got epilepsy so she's got two different pills and one liquid to take twice a day. Plus she had a series of siezures a while ago that really messed with her housetraining so she sometimes has accidents.

Anyway. We're all enjoying the chance to run in a big pack and play together. I think mom will be glad when her dog chore time goes back down to 30 minutes instead of an hour :)