Contemplation

A summery day is just the perfect time to lie in the grass and meditate. Or fall asleep. My Best Friend always falls asleep when he mediates so maybe it is all the same thing.

I have been pondering a bit between snores, getting in touch with my inner self. My inner chicken, my Person says. That is just because I ate an entire chicken carcass a few days ago, and so far no remains of it have, well, emerged. She thinks I am plugged up, but I think I am really a wolf in Red Dog clothing and can eat a lot of bones without ill effect.

But my inner chicken isn't limited to my diet. It also includes my feelings: feelings about conflict and the rough and tumble life of dogs, how some dogs are friendly and some are not, some playful and some want to fight, what people expect from dogs and what dogs expect from each other. My Person signed me up for an outdoor advanced obedience class and I get just a little scared of all the things we have to do and the other dogs in the class, all the direction and correction going on. It all makes me feel a little chicken.

Maybe I would like to be a simpler sort of fellow, not a dog signed up for advanced classes. Maybe I would like to be a rural rustic and lie on my side in the shade with a grass blade between my teeth, a bird singing over my head.

Of course if the bird is a chicken, I'll just have to eat it.

At swim, one dog

There is a freeze warning for the northern part of my northern home but just look at me in my swimsuit, enjoying the sun and having a sip or two of enriched water.

I hear that some people drink coffee and energy drinks and tea and all kinds of flavored water that they pay for with money that could instead purchase things like dog toys and dog treats. Why, you might wonder, as I often do whenever my Person buys something for herself and not for me, why on earth buy some fancy juiced-up liquid when you can just come down to the shores of the Mississippi and jump on in and drink as much enhanced water as you want for free?

This river water probably has lots of caffeine in it and lots of roughage besides and little fish parts and some greenery and wiggly guys and paramecia and twigs. This is water you can chew as well as slurp.

Of course you might end up with some uninvited guests living in your gut. So begins my summer of giardia once again!

I've had enough!

Too much has happened to this little red dog lately. First I get my lights punched out and end up in the hospital, and then my Person up and leaves me and I have to spend a week in a prison for sad dogs. And then today, on this gently sunny spring day, we bravely brave the dog park for the first time since the Incident and who do I see the minute I arrive? The dog that beat me up!

It seems this dog was a fighting dog found on the mean streets of the city. I feel badly for him but I would just as soon NEVER see him again.

After that uneasy encounter I continued on my way into the park and calmed myself down by running as fast as I could and swimming and playing with a Shiba Inu who was just my size. I even joined my friend Tasha in a game of Chase the Person around the Tree. I thought it was a little tame but it got Tasha pretty wound up. I spent my evening watching my Person babysit and it was nice to stretch out on the grass and feel it tickle my bare chest and watch the birds sail into the yard. Life finally seems peaceful once again. Oh I hope I am right. I've had about as much excitement lately as I can take.

Thumbs up!

Whew! I am glad this week is over. I am done being an invalid, I am done wearing a 5T toddler shirt and I am done with my check up. The vet says I am almost as good a new with a little scar tissue added. And minus most of my chest fur.

I deserve a treat!

Low on adventures

The busybody is at rest. And highly medicated.

I am feeling better and remember how to wag my tail. But I am not doing that any time soon because my Person is making me wear this stupid tank top to keep my wound clean. How embarrassing! She bought me several little shirts to wear and I am surprised but relieved that none of them have bears or bunnies or Spiderman on them. Or Elmo.

If this had happened to my friend Tasha she would have a pink t-shirt for sure! But I am glad she doesn't have to go through this.

A bad day

I am a mutt. I am a mix of many of breeds of dogs. It seems all of us dogs carry traits from our ancestors. Mine make me want to hunt for chipmunks and stick my head into holes in the ground for a good sniff. Other dogs have ancestors who were trained to be to be valiant and to fight enemies to the death. That makes them extra loyal to their packs but dangerous to others when they get mad.

The pit bull dog is one of those breeds and they are caught up in a swirl of controversy: their human pack members love their ferocious loyalty, but their huge, strong jaws are a danger to those who get in the way of an aroused pit.

One got mad at me at the dog park and I ended up at the University Veterinary Hospital. My Person was terribly afraid and I couldn't get away from that dog or get out of its mouth once it pinned me. If a brave man hadn't pulled the pit bull off of me I might have been hurt much worse. I couldn't walk after I was attacked and my Person had to carry me for a long, long way to get out of the dog park. My friend Tasha was with me and she was very scared and so was her Person. I am recuperating now from a very bruised shoulder and leg and a deep puncture wound in my chest.

I hope that pitbull owners understand that they need to have complete control over and be very near to their dogs at all times. Maybe it isn't what their pit bull might do to them that is the issue. It is the incredible amount of damage to others that pit bulls are capable of that makes them a real danger.

Summer daze

I know it it is just barely spring but today seemed like summer. Minus the green.

What do kids get up to on warm summer days? A bit of running and splashing in a swimming hole and maybe even trying to catch a frog or two? I did all of that. And more!

I shed some of my winter coat. I swallowed lots of enriched (pond) water. I got so muddy my socks turned brown. I stuck my nose down into a hole in the ground. My Person said "Someday, something will bite your nose and then you'll be sorry."

But I won't be. When winter is gone and spring is really here, even a sore nose can't spoil my fun!