Dog porch

I thought you'd like to see my new porch. I am probably going to be spending a lot of time out here, so it is a good thing I like it.

Last night my Person was out doing some errands, none of which benefited me, so I thought I would make my own luck. I went hunting. Indoors. And I found, carelessly lying about on top of a counter I am not supposed to be able to reach, in a grocery bag I am not supposed to bother with, a bag of ginger snaps.

Now I am kind of a ginger snap as well so I helped myself.

There were way too many cookies for me to eat right then and there so I decided to stash some for later, in a better hiding place than where I originally found them. I tried to hide them under the pillows in the bed, but then I remembered my Person always sleeps there at night and she might just find my prize. So then I hid them under the afghan that adorns the couch. I carefully balled the afghan up over the cookie package in a casual-looking manner, so as to not draw any attention, and then I waited for my Person to come home. As soon as I heard the back door open I dashed out into the yard to hide, just in case I miscalculated and my Person had been dreaming of munching ginger snaps the entire time she was out on her errand.

Unfortunately, my dashing out the door somehow signals to my Person that I feel guilty about something. (I don't understand how she gleans these insights into my cunning mind.) Also, I accidentally knocked some other stuff out of the grocery bag when I was grabbing the cookies and she cleverly read that as a clue that I had done Something Bad.

Soon enough she found my cookies. And she didn't believe that I had set a trap for chipmunks and therefore was being helpful. She just made me sit on the porch and think about what I had done. What I really thought about was how I could talk my Best Friend into sneaking the cookie bag out of the garbage and into my toy box. My Person NEVER looks in there.

Anyway, if we had a dog house I would be in it now. But we don't. We just have a dog porch. And here I sit.

A slipping-away summer

How the time flies, even when you are NOT having fun. Though right now I am.

I am high above the Mississippi, pretending the world is mine, even the eagle that just flew below me holding a big fat fish in his talons. It reminds me of the snack I will get when I am home again, not nearly so large, but not wriggling either.

I have been in a bit of a hiatus from my creative life. Sometimes you have to attend to other things and my job as a guard dog has grown almost burdensome. For several months now, my Person and Best Friend have undertaken to expand my little house into a bigger sort of house. Day after day, crews of workers have needed to be barked at, safety-sniffed and supervised.

First the roof was torn right off of my home and one day I ran up the steps and into the open-air platform with carpenters chasing me. Many a day a carpenter would let me right out of my little yard but I stayed close by and didn't run off as I would have in my less serious days.

Now the house is mostly finished and the cats have the run of the new space but I will admit only to you I am a bit afraid of going to the new upstairs. But my solace is my new back porch and from this secret and shady place I can watch the birds alight, the chipmunks sneak and the squirrels dash over the fence. Sometimes I spring out from under the porch chair and roar at them. I even lurk here in the dark of the evening, guarding against raccoons and evil-doers.

I also have a new duty: scaring away the Cooper's hawk who is new to the world this summer and has taken up target practice in my back yard. The only good news is that his aim is bad. The bad news is he is relentless. Unless I am around.

And so my summer has gone, constantly at work and adjusting to new circumstances, taking on responsibilities. I fear I am no longer the pup I used to be.

I will ponder that more. Later. Right now I am going to chase a squirrel.