Explosive

Looks like I am a tired little red dog, huh? You would be too if you had done what I have. I just caused three avalanches in one hour. Count 'em, three!

You might be wondering how someone as small (though powerfully built) as me could cause avalanches. I will tell you! While my Person walks sedately along the river trail, I tear up the steep and very tall sides of the river gorge like a flash, through deep and unstable snow, and when I get to the top I bomb down as fast as I can. I am absolutely heedless. I don't pick a path, or step carefully, worry about hidden holes or fallen trees. I just sail back down, flying in a cloud of rolling snow. When the my Person straightens up and stops clutching her hat (she is SUCH a worry wart) and the snowballs stop rumbling I do it again. It is fantastic. I could get a job triggering mini-avalanches to prevent big avalanches in Colorado. They could call me Dynamite!

Right now I think I need a new fuse.

Tale's end

Count yourself lucky that you are on the other end of this photo. Because that is Adric in front of me. Or the end of Adric. Or Adric's end. However you say it, it is best to be far away from it!

He's being a bit brazen as usual, horning in on my show. Wherever I go he shows up and wiggles around and purrs and manages to insert himself between me and my Person. If I was as bossy as he is I would get in trouble. And if I stand up for myself, I have to reckon with the fact that he's a direct descendant of a saber toothed tiger and he thinks teeth are for biting dogs. (I think they are for biting cats. And squirrels.)

But he'll get his comeuppance soon. I heard tell a certain Person might be going somewhere warm and sunny soon and we all know cats don't like to travel and we all know little red dogs do. How could this work out anything but splendidly??

Spring break

My goodness I could almost run around without my coat on, except that it is attached to me. What a wonderful thing warm sunshine is.

The temperature crawled above the freezing mark and my Person was not the only one who decided their dog needed some romping. I ran around the busy park and swiped some other dogs' sticks and balls (well, if you are going to have toys in public you have to expect the public to play with them). I found a muskrat house and decorated it with some yellow snow. I barked at a beagle and ran away when it bayed at me. And I refrained from laughing when my Person tripped over a snow-covered root and ended up face first in the snow. What an oaf!

The birds were singing like it was spring already, and the snow got so warm it was melty. When the sun goes back down it will be too slippery for much running. But that is okay because I wore myself out and will be sawing logs by then. I was so tired from running my tongue wouldn't stay in my mouth but flopped out the side. Good thing I didn't trip over it or my Person wouldn't have been the only one face down in the snow today.

Buzzz

Bet you don't know what this is! I will tell you but I must give you some background.

First, let me say that my Person's environmental tendencies are probably a good thing. For instance she doesn't believe in throwing things away when they are still perfectly good, and she recycles. Hence she has me for a little red dog. I was used but still good and she recycled me. I was repurposed even, from a country dog to a city dog.

Second, it is a good thing to grow flowers and bushes that bugs and birds like because I like bugs and birds too and our yard is full of all of the above - me, birds, bugs, flowers and bushes. I could hide behind the bushes and jump on the birds if I wanted. But I don't.

Third, she likes animals of most sorts, and once again, I am glad or I wouldn't be here, or alive even, and I wouldn't have fun cat brothers to pester.

But she may be going too far. She built this funny house for new guests. For bees!! She gave this one away to my aunt veecee who is even nuttier than my Person about things like bugs and birds. But she's planning on making more including one for our backyard. Which means more bees will move in.

Maybe that's all fine and good - the more the merrier they say. As long as all the cats and birds and bees and everyone else remembers who is top dog around here!

Dog's life

You know that "Life is good" line of apparel? Obviously the creators were thinking about my life. Parts of it anyway. The parts where I am allowed to run around like a little red maniac and sniff out wild beast tracks, have unlimited treats and wear myself out so that my couch slumbers are the result of too much fresh air instead of too much nothing happening.

Today was pretty mild for the Siberia of the western world and my Person and my Best Friend accompanied me on a wild off-leash adventure through a marsh and out on a frozen lake to an island inhabited by Wild Beavers! They had been chewing up the trees and if I did as much damage to the wood in my house I would be in some serious trouble. But they aren't. They were snoozing away but I could smell where their feet had been tromping, as well as the feet of a lot of other strange creatures like labrador retrievers.

It was so much fun that if I were the type of dog to wear a hat or a t-shirt, and let me assure you that I am not, it would say "Finnegan's Life is Good!"

Cupid's arrow

Was it a shot by love's arrow that made me feel so funny yesterday? All kind of whoozy and dopey, like my Person seems most of the time? Was it the heady scent of flowers from the huge bouquet that arrived mysteriously by a delivery person? (Don't worry, I got my own back and barked at him until he took off in his truck.)

Just say no to all those silly suggestions. I was made ill by the shots I suffered at the vet. I spent the evening of Valentine's Day glumly huddled on the couch. I didn't beg for chicken curry and aromatic rice which was the feast du jour. I didn't clobber my Valentine buddy Adric. I didn't squash my other Valentine buddies Ollie and Pico. I didn't have much energy for fun at all. Others carried on without a whit of concern for me.

Today I woke up in fine form and harried the cats, gobbled my breakfast, tripped my Person, snuggled my Best Friend and ran like a crazy coyote through the dog park. I have my full appetite back so I hope my Person hasn't developed some one-day-too-late worry about me and offers only me broth for dinner. I am hoping she hands over all those chocolate hearts that suddenly appeared. This red dog is ready for love!

The best of times, the worst...

Talk about mixed bags. I had such a day as I hope won't be repeated for awhile. Parts were wonderful put I paid for it.

My human grandmother intones "laughter is closest to tears," but she's a Swede and they think like that.

What happened? Much of the usual stuff: intimidating Adric the Cat into hiding under the bed (funny how he always manages to sneak out the other side when I am not looking), savaging my toy Squirrelly, and a session with the Young Artists who came to work on sculptures again. I inspired them, I must say. Next week we are painting so I must do some tail flexing exercises to prepare - I hear my tail has a brushy quality.

Then the day turned grim. My Person asked me if I wanted to go in the car. Of course I bounded into the open door, knowing this way lies dog parks, trips to Auntie VeeCee's, trips to the Pet Food Store....but not so in this case. This way led to the Vet. I was shot twice with huge needles and they wickedly drew blood from my furiously flailing leg. And they didn't give me a treat! It was ghastly.

I did get a walk in the snow after and felt a little better. But next time my Person holds the car door open, I will think twice. Maybe!

Running wild

It has been so cold that even the most intrepid have been hiding inside. Except me. I am like the post office. Or the myth of the post office. Neither sleet nor snow nor rain keep me from my appointed fun activities. Here I am sniffing the the river ice with my Person who is dressed unbecomingly as a sleeping bag, as usual.

I had a great adventure today at the river. While down on the frozen beach my Person dropped my leash. On purpose. To see if I would hang around. I took off like a shot.

I ran into the woods. I ran out on the ice. I ran back into the woods. I ran back out onto the ice. My Person walked along the shore and wrung her hands but she tried to show her trust in me. Every few minutes I would race toward her at top speed. This is a great gimmick and makes your Person feel like you really like them. Try it for effect. It will probably earn you some treats as well. This is what you call a win-win situation: your Person feels good, and a little red dog gets to do what he wants AND gets a treat for it.

After a long spate of wild running I got into a bit of a predicament. I raced up from the river and through the trees and up the side of the river gorge. Then I raced back down again and found myself on a ledge that was too far from the ground to jump off of. I was stuck!

I whined until my Person found me. But I was too high up for her to rescue me. Luckily, my Best Friend is visiting and he has extremely long arms (compared to me anyway) and he plucked me from my tight spot. After that I had to walk on my leash again. But that was okay. My Best Friend knows I need him to hang around more often. You never know when I might get into a jam.

Work of art

Every now and then my Person says I am a piece of work. But I think she means I am a work of art.

Today some young artists were over making sculptures. So I contributed as best I could. I did my statue pose but no one noticed. So then I showed them my corgi ear trick and my holding hands for a long time trick. I also fell asleep for awhile.

After attending this art class I think I am art. My Person said sculpture is three dimensional. And I am too. She said that sculpture could have asymmetrical balance and I have that in addition to symmetrical balance. She said sculptures sometimes can make sounds and have moving parts. I make lots of noise and all my parts move really well. She said sculptures can be realistic or not and that is me all over.

I wonder if my Person knew when she adopted this little red dog she was getting a work of art in the bargain?

Evening

The kindergarteners have a saying: "you don't know what you'll get so don't pitch a fit." It means something like "don't complain."

I didn't get to go for a walk this morning when the day was fresh. I didn't get to go for a walk this noon when the day was peppy. I didn't get to go for a walk mid-afternoon when the sun finally came out. I didn't get to go for a walk until the end of the day. But I know what kindergarteners know.

By the time I was out trailing my leash and my Person behind me, the birds were quieting down and the sun had mostly hidden itself. As we walked along river walk the sky blushed pink. I looked straight up and saw ducks flying swiftly to their evening rest. I looked straight out and saw the smallest bird nest ever, a leftover from last spring, in the branches of a tree I have walked by hundreds of times. I looked straight down the river bank and saw the quiet water as dark as tea that has steeped for ever so long. The pink began to steal from the sky as swiftly as it had appeared and I couldn't help feel bits of sadness mixed with bits of happiness and lots of quiet fill my heart.

My Person and I turned around then to walk home and the snow turned lavender gray and crunched under our feet and we both were glad we waited until the very end of the day to walk together.

Clean slate

I am a dog. I do not know what a slate is, or how you would know the difference between a clean one and a dirty one (and being smell-oriented tends to make me prefer dirty things anyway). But my person is big on symbols, especially visual symbols and I admit to taking on some of her ideas. Not many, but some.

Today is a snowy day and there is a nice soft layer of snow covering up the grime and ice and detritus of the past few weeks. A friendly snow as someone my Person used to know would say. She says that a snow like this is a visual symbol of a fresh start. You can make footprints on a path where maybe you've walked before but today it is like new territory. You don't have to see the scuffs where you slipped on the ice yesterday.

My Person says too many people around here are the end result of eons of peering alone into the fire at night near the frozen fjord and it makes them a little glum or apt to stew. But when you have a new coating of snow it is like being told you can start all over.

Some think the dog food dish is half empty, some think it is half full. I know for a fact that mine is completely empty but I know that every day it will get filled up again at some point. Just like every day I get to start over being a little red dog in a big world.

Balancing act

Trying to balance the interests of two beings is more complicated than balancing on this crazy chair. My Person and I face the daily struggle of balancing how much she's suppose to entertain me against how much I am supposed to entertain her. You can imagine my point of view.

For example, today we had two hours of walking and two hours of me cooling my jets while she fiddled with her paints. My Person thinks we are even but the walking was for her benefit as much as mine. She is as interested in birds and squirrels as I am - she just doesn't carry the idea forward like I do to the "pounce on" stage. She's stuck at the "admire silently" stage.

But I am a reasonable little red dog and besides, I usually get my own back by taking up 95 percent of the couch when we read together. That takes a lot of stretching on my part. But maintaining a balanced relationship is worth all the hard work.