What Fun!

Back in September we had company.  Mom called them my cousins from S. Dakota.  I don't care what they're called but they were fun, and big which meant they were big fun!  Well....  all this past week Mom and Dad have been getting more and more excited and happy.  Finally Mom told me and Suzy that their boy and his girl and our cowboy cousins were coming to visit.  Yay!!  I was pretty sure I knew just who they meant and I was right!!  A couple nights ago Mom and Dad left and came back with the gang.   Blanton and Jimi were here!  At first when they let me out of the kennel, I ran up to them and then stopped --- whoa!!  They were big; I had forgotten just how big they were!  But Blanton smiled at me so we all ran outside and got re-acquainted.  We have already had some fun times playing together.  The Christmas tree is up and Suzy reminded me that what that means is we'll be getting some presents from Santa.  I don't want to share mine so I sure hope Santa knows Blanton and Jimi are at my house and he leaves them a present of their own!  

It's a Dog's Life

I've been really busy lately.  Mommy and Kristal are still taking me and Suzy and Maggie and Mollie for walks.  They rush home from work and load us all up in the car and we drive off to the trail.  Since it is getting dark so early now we don't have time to go to the really cool trails.  We only get to go to the "Hike and Bike" trail that is just down the road from us.  We don't really care - just getting to go for a walk with my friends is what matters.  Me and Mollie and Suzy all walk side-by-side, just wagging our tails and hanging our tongues out.  Maggie is way smaller than us and she doesn't really keep up so she's behind us a little bit.


Sometimes when we're on the trail we pass other people.  Some are on bikes and go by really fast.  Other people are just strolling along.  I don't understand why they're on the path - they don't have a dog with them.  Maybe they lost their dog?   Then, we see people who have a dog.  Some of the dogs are really friendly and wag their tails at us and I can tell they are happy and their owners really love them.  We also pass dogs that are walking along and look sort of angry.  They always bark and growl at us so we bark back.  That usually shuts them up and gets them moving!  


The last time we went for a walk we were walking back to the car in almost dark!  Mom and Kristi said we may not get to go again for a while.  On our way back to the car me and Mollie heard the geese coming over us first.  Mollie likes to look at them.  I think she'd like to go hunting with me and Dad some day!  We see all sorts of things besides geese.  There were even some ducks that flew over and all we heard was their wings flapping.  We almost always see a deer or two.   I bet if we weren't on our leashes we could chase those deer.  I know Mom and Kristi would get mad at us though.


Besides our walks - Daddy started taking me hunting again.  Even if he doesn't shoot anything it's still fun.


Yesterday Mommy left and when she came back she had Jocelyn, the littlest kiddo with her.  Jocelyn stayed all afternoon and played with us.  I love when the kiddos come - they know where the treats are and think it is so much fun to give us some!  Jocelyn even carried old Bozwell around for a while.


I helped load up the firewood beside the fireplace, so I'm thinking we'll be having a fire again soon.  I hope so.  After one of my busy days it's so nice to curl up in the chair and watch the fire.  It feels so warm and cozy!  It sure is a Dog's Life and I'm glad I'm a Dog!

Time for Work!

Back when I was a baby, Daddy spent a lot of time teaching me how to retrieve things for him.  It wasn't hard for him to teach me because I love to run and go get things and bring them back to him.  It didn't take me long to figure out if I did that he'd throw it again and I could go get it for him.  It makes him so proud of me when I do that!

Last year I was still a young pup, but Daddy took me with him when he would leave really early in the morning with his gun.  He always packed a little bag with food and treats in it.  Sometimes we went to the bigger lake and took his boat.  Sometimes we would go to the place where I get to be a "Club Puppy" and run and run and swim in the lake.  The "Club Puppy" place is where Daddy trained with me.  But, when we went there early in the morning, when it was still dark, we weren't training.  We were taking me to work.  Daddy was going hunting.  I love hunting!  Dad takes his gun and he calls ducks in close to his toy ducks he has spread out all over the marsh.  I sit quietly and get a treat slipped to me every once in a while.  Then - BANG!  Daddy shoots a duck and tells me to get to work.  My job is to run out and pick up the duck and bring it back to Daddy.  It's a lot like training but way more fun.  He never throws it again, though.  Instead we just sit and wait for another duck to fly in. 


Then the weather got really, really cold and we didn't go hunting anymore.  Daddy said the season was over.  It got nice again and we did all sorts of fun things.  We went camping and hiking and on picnics.  I even got to go out in the boat while Mommy and Daddy went fishing.  One day I noticed the leaves were all turning pretty colors and falling off the trees. 


Then one day Daddy got up really early and packed a bag full of treats and food for him.  He picked up his gun and took me in the truck to the "Club Puppy" place.  It was time to work again!  That was last week.  The next day we went to my friend, Lucy's, house and took her and her Daddy to another place to hunt.  We sure had fun!  Lucy was jealous because she didn't get to go out the day before. 


This morning my Daddy got up really early again and off we went!  I hope we get to do this a lot - it sure is fun! 


Here's a picture of me last year when I was a baby.  Daddy got me a coat so I don't get cold.

                                       

Wet outside - Warm inside

I knew right off that today was not a day where Mom and Dad were going to stick us in our crates and leave for the day.  I knew it because when I jumped on the bed to snuggle before the radio comes on making Mommy get up, Daddy called Suzy to come up on the bed and snuggle, too.  That only happens on days when the radio isn't going to come on.  I let out a deep sigh and snuggled closer in to Mommy.  I couldn't help it, but my tail did a few little "thump thumps" and it made her giggle.  Mommy's arm came out of the covers and gave me a few pats.  The kind of pat that says,  "I love you." Thump thump went my tail again.


The next thing I know my belly is hungry and Mom is finally getting out of bed.  It is still dark, so at least breakfast wasn't too much later than normal.  Suzy and I go outside for morning border patrol.  It's raining and it's cold.  That means we don't have to search the entire perimeter; nothing is going to be out in this mess!  Breakfast is the same as always.  But hours later we get to have a few bites of the human breakfast.  Man!  They sure eat good!  Waffles, eggs, bacon.  Did I mention the bacon?!  The house has smelled soooo good ever since!  Of course dinner made it smell even better but that'll come later.


Kristi stopped by to take Mom away.  They weren't too far down the road when Daddy decided we'd go for a ride, too!  He grabbed our black "go away" backpack that our leashes are in and we dodged raindrops to the truck.  When we got back home the girls were already back, having cups of hot tea.  I was a little sad; Kristi didn't have Mollie or even Maggie with her.  I would have loved a little play date with my best friend and Suzy said she would have liked seeing Maggie. 


Mom decided that it was sort of chilly and we needed a fire.  A fire!  I love fires - they are so warm and cozy.  If I can just talk Kristi into getting out of my chair then I could curl up and have a good nap right next to that fire.  She leaves so I get the chair!  Mom goes to the kitchen to start their dinner.  Once again there are good smells coming out of that room.  This time it is fish.  They keep talking about how much fun it was catching that fish and how good it is.   Did Suzy or I get a taste of that fish?  Nope.  Not one bite.  At least I heard that there was more in the freezer.  Hopefully we'll get a taste next time.


Dark comes a lot earlier these days.  It's still rainy.  It's still cold.  But - Suzy and I are lucky dogs.  We are snug and warm with a roaring fire to keep it that way.  Being a retriever is a pretty good thing to be!

My Cousins from Out West

Last year when I was still a baby we went on a long road trip.  We ended up at a man's house that mom and dad were so happy to see.  They hugged him and kissed him and there was lots of laughing.  Even Suzy was happy to see him.  Suzy told me he was mom's "precious baby sweetheart" and his name was Steve.  Steve had a HUGE dog named Blanton.  Blanton is not much older than me, but he is lots bigger!

We became pretty good friends and I really enjoyed that trip.  Time went on and I sort of forgot about Blanton.  Then, last week just when I thought we should be going to bed someone came in our basement door!  Mom and Dad got all excited and jumped up to greet whoever it was.  Turns out it was Mom's "Precious Baby Sweetheart" and he brought a really pretty girl with him.  He also had Blanton!  and another dog, Jimi.  Jimi is almost as big as Blanton and I like him a lot, too.  We all stayed up real late and laughed and talked.  The humans and the dogs have been visiting back and forth between our house and the pretty girl's mom and dad's house. 

Mom and Dad stayed home from work one day and Grandma and Grandpa came over.  So did Kristal. Jake had to be at that place called "work".  Steve and Mom worked a long time in the kitchen and made a good smelling pan full of something they called lasagna.  I've smelled it before.  I just wish they'd give me some of it.  We all hung out outside in the yard.  Me and Suzy and the boys chased chipmunks and just had a fun day.  We all get along and so far we haven't even broken anything! 


I heard the humans talking this morning and it sounds like they're heading back to their house in a couple days.  Our house is going to be so quiet.  I won't mind at first because I'm really tired from all this playing, but then I'm going to start missing Blanton and Jimi.  I hope we go out to visit them real soon.

First Post - Let Me Introduce Myself!

Greetings!  My name is Annie and I've been sitting beside my human mom, Mother Ann, for almost two years now watching her write and I'm pretty sure I can do this!  Suzy is my big sister, but she's a little shy.  In fact the humans fondly call her "Anti-Social Sue".  She'll happily greet you, make sure if there are any treats she gets her share, then she heads to the bedroom or sometimes even all the way to her kennel in the basement.  Not me!  I'm gonna hang out and not miss a thing!  Everybody loves a wet, sloppy dog kiss!  Heck - everybody loves a big, black lab in their lap!


I know that Suzy and I are pretty spoiled, but that's how it should be.  We get to go a lot of fun places and do a lot of really cool things.  A lot of days, though, our parents put us in our kennels and go a way for what seems like forever.  I would have been really worried the first time it happened but Suzy is older and she explained to me how they do this, but they always come home and are so happy to see us.  Now I know they have to go to a place called "work".  It's not a place we would want to go so I'm good with hanging out in my kennel.  For the life of me, though, I can't understand why they don't put those darn cats in the kennel.  They like to sit on top of mine and swing their tail down thru the holes.  I guess I don't really mind since the cats NEVER get to go on the fun trips.  They don't get to go outside and chase chipmunks or swim in the creek either.  I think mom and dad like Suzy and me best. 


When I was a baby Kristal and Jake would come over and bring their furbaby, Maggie to play.  Suzy told me that Maggie was her BFF and they would put up with me just so they wouldn't get in trouble but Maggie really didn't like me.  I tried to get her to like me.  I would follow her around and grab her little nub of a tail.  That little thing just wiggles all the time!  She would always turn around and bark at me though.  Then, one day I realized that I was getting bigger than Maggie.  Mom told me she's a cocker spaniel and labs are bigger than cocker spaniels.  I was always happy to see Kristal and Jake (and Maggie, too, if you want to know the truth) but I always felt a little left out.  When I got a little older I got to start playing "The Game" with Suzy and Maggie.  Kristal sticks us in the bathroom for a few minutes, then lets us out to find treats that are hidden all around the house.  It took me a while to figure it out, but it is a fun game.  I see why Suzy loves Kristal so much - we always get to play it when she comes over. 


Just when I finally decided that I'd always be the kid sister tagging along behind Suzy and Maggie, Kristal and Jake came to their senses and got a BFF for me!  Mollie is a chocolate lab and we are like peas and carrots!  She started out smaller than me at the beginning of the summer but she is catching up quick!  We'll be the same size in no time!  Now when we all get together I have somebody to play with!  We love rumpus time!


I hope you will all enjoy reading about what goes on in a dog's life.  I love my humans and if they're happy, I'm happy!  Sometimes I might even let Suzy tell her side of the story!





(This is me and Suzy)