Time to relax

Ah...I feel so relaxed. I am happy about the new President. Most of the world is I hear. So I think I can be off duty for a while. No longer need I be concerned with every stranger walking up the street, every dog that sniffs along the sidewalk, every rabbit that visits the yard. I don't have to be afraid and I don't have to go shopping either. I just have to be a responsible little red dog, be honorable with other dogs and be useful and helpful.

I am still going to chase those squirrels away though. As soon as a I wake up....

Obama Dog

A picture is worth a 1000 words! I am almost as happy as my Person!

I would be even happier without clothing however.

13 below and falling

It is a brisk out today. Fresh. Chilly maybe. The snow is over my keel and the air freezes the inside of my nice, wet nose and when I run through the drifts the hairs of my chinny-chin freeze and soon I am wearing a little ice beard which makes me look wise but cold.

You have to prepare a bit before you go outside in this weather. My Person puts on layer after layer of clothes. I go from deep snooze to ready to play a lot faster than she does and I prepare for the icy blast by running in place by the door, jumping, whining and then wildly hurtling around the room when my Person puts on her outermost layer. If you grabbed her scarf and pulled, she'd spin like a top and that would be fun for you but she'd probably fall down on the ice that is hiding under all that cold snow.

The birds look extra cold today with fluffed out feathers, often hopping on one foot to keep the other foot warm inside their feathery coats. And even though I love the snow it is good to have a warm place to curl up when the fun is over and I have such a spot and I am headed there now.

Softy

I was up to my usual tricks today - haunting the river bottom, pouncing in the snow banks, hunting for snow mice - the usual routine. Another dog showed up, and can you believe it, he only spoke German!! He wanted to play.

Now I am a Social Barker, not a problem, can quit any time, but this dog didn't bark at all and so it turned out we didn't have anything in common and we didn't play after all. In fact, this little guy seemed a little upset by my barking.

He trotted away and I bounded away and that was that. Or so I thought.

Then my Person spoke up. "You are a Ruffian," she said. Or maybe she said "You are a Roughian." I kind of like the idea of being a Ruffian - "Ruff, ruff," that is what I like to say to the world. But a Roughian?

I've decide to take up knitting just in case she meant spelling number two. I think knitting is not rough. It is genteel. It is soft and quiet and produces fun things to chew - like scarves and mittens and socks. It is accompanied by the soft click of needles and the soft sighs of knitters and causes cats to fall asleep (not that they have trouble in that area) and dogs to, well, cease barking.

Well, ruff or rough as the case may be, I am a knitter now.

Hunting instinct

Once upon a time, long ago, there was a little red wolf. He was my ancestor. He had brown eyes and soft ears and a black, wet, cold nose and he liked to hunt.

Leap forward a few generations and several thousand years and you come to me. My ears tip down and I am a bit shorter than my wolfy forebear and I spend more time couch surfing than deer stalking. But I am still a hunter. Here is one of my latest trophies.

I caught tree! It was on the small side itself, and it was already lying down, but it was a battle of titans and I bit it all over its little branches until it surrendered. But being a modern hunter I practice catch and release. So I left the little tree reclining on the frozen shore and it made no move to get up or hide from further attack and you can go see it yourself if you feel like hunting.

New and lightly used

As I suspected, the new year crept in without me hearing and I didn't bark the old one out the door. In fact I was at a private party but I had faded a bit, perhaps was even snoozing lightly, when the great moment came.

And as I also suspected, no resolutions were in order and things have been going pretty well so far: plenty of 2008-model squirrels left to chase, dog parks to play in full of dogs to bark at, treats from store owners. I even was allowed to go inside a pizza parlor with my Person while my Best Friend ordered our dinner to go.

2008 presented me with new challenges and learning opportunities: modeling, trying out for a play, staying overnight with my human grandparents, snowshoeing up north where the wolves live. I had trips and visits and learned to play off-leash without running away from my Person forever. I grew a winter coat and then dropped it over time and over the couch and now I am growing a new one. I had holiday meals with new friends including a lovely woman with Alzheimer's who found my soft ears a comfort to pet. Plus she fed me a huge amount of turkey under the table. I survived an almost endless bout of giardia but I kept my sunny side (that's the red side) up most of the time.

What a life I have. I have a couple of new 2009 toys to chew and my cat brothers are as sleepy and round and easy to catch as ever. And now it is time to add a little taste of pizza to my 2009 experience!!