My Monthly Diary forJune, 2011

This was a pretty quiet month for Mommy and me. We decided to take it easy after my fall down the stairs to let everything heal up. It took about three weeks for me to get almost back to my normal self, but I am still slow and a bit limpy and I've been getting tired after about 5 miles so Mommy took me to see the chiropractor. She said my back was fine and that slow and limpy and getting tired faster is now my new norm. It seems that since I don't feel my back feet like I should I'm walking kind of funny. I also don't seem to be able to make my ankles and knees bend quite right anymore so I am compensating by using my hips to lift my feet off the ground. That way I don't foot scrape, but it is why I get tired a lot faster than I used to. My hip muscles just aren't up to the new task I am setting them to. Mommy says she knows how that is since her knees don't work right and she uses her hips to lift her feet off the ground too.

Another reason we haven't done much is it was much hotter than it should have been in June. We had days in the upper 90s early on and then big storms. Then more hot days. Really hot days are hard on Mommy and me because we don't have air conditioning, but on the good side it does mean that I get to spend time swimming in the lake. I took quite a few evening swims with Mommy and sometimes we went for Pup Cups afterwards, but other times we didn't. I don't understand how you can go for an evening swim and not follow it up with a Pup Cup. That's just not right.

One great thing that happened this month was that the four kids who I see on my evening walk sometimes found our house and they came into the backyard and played with me! It was very exciting and I played You Can't Get the Toy from Me, and Kick the Ball Up in the Air So I Can Bounce it with My Nose, and Tug-of-War with Sticks and Toys. Mommy broke up the playtime after about an hour when she noticed I was gasping for breath and limping a lot, but it was great fun while it lasted.

I did take Mommy for an 8 mile morning walk early in the month. We had had one of the big storms and it was a cool Sunday morning so I thought the long walk was in order. Mommy said, "We shouldn't do an 8 mile walk. We should do the 5 mile walk instead." but I got stubborn and refused to move until Mommy gave in. That is the great thing about being a 75 lb dog. If you decided you aren't going to move, you don't move. Mommy can't just pick you up and carry you like I've seen happen with some of the little dogs in town. They whine and complain, but they get no say in the matter. Anyway, I decided it was a cool enough day to take the 8 mile morning walk and insisted on doing it. Mommy gave in. Well, after 5 miles I decided that I had walked enough and, since we were at the forest preserve parking lot, I went to the nearest car and sat down and waited for Mommy to give me a ride home. Mommy said it wasn't her car and she was not going to hotwire it just because I bit off more of a walk than I could chew. I tried doing the stubborn bit, but Mommy wasn't having any of it and she went all stubborn herself and she sat down in the shade of a tree by the lot and said she'd wait. We waited for quite awhile and I finally gave up and we continued our walk home. When we got to the playground part of the walk we found a very sad fallen nest with dead baby birds inside. They must have gotten knocked down in the storm that night. I decided to sit by the nest for awhile and so Mommy joined me on the ground. Then we got up and walked to the creek, and I sat on the bridge for awhile. Then we got to the church parking lot and I tried to get Mommy to hotwire one of the cars parked there. She said no, so we sat on the berm by the lot for awhile. Then we got to the old pear trees and I lay down in the shade and refused to move anymore. Mommy took her sweatshirt off and turned it into a pillow and we napped under the pear trees for about a half hour. I decided I could walk again after that and we got all the way back to town and to where Gunner the lab used to live. Gunner's mommy and daddy were working in their front yard and I lay down under their tree and refused to go again. Mommy considered asking Gunner's mommy and daddy to watch me while she walked the 5 blocks we had left home and got the car, but then she said, no, I wanted this walk I was going to finish it. So we sat and watched Gunner's mommy and daddy work and Mommy talked to them some and they came and pet me a bit and then I decided I would walk the rest of the way home. When I got home I ate my milk bone and fell sound asleep. Mommy went outside to work in the yard and the four kids came by and asked if I could come out and play. Mommy said, "Sorry, not this time, he is too tired." I barked hi, but then went right back to sleep.

Oh! On one of my Saturday walks to the lake I CAUGHT A FISH!! I caught a carp in Lake Michigan once when I was younger, but it was bigger than a cat and it scared me when I saw what I had by the tail so I let it go, but this time I caught a bluegill which fit in my mouth nicely. I love chasing the bluegills and trying to catch them and finally all my work payed off! I pulled it out of the water and proudly showed it to Mommy and then I realized that it was slimy and wiggly and pointy and it grossed me out so I dropped it. It plopped back into the water and swam away before I could catch it again. Catching fish would be a lot more fun if they tasted more like my freeze dried salmon treats and less like a wiggly sharp blob of slime.

I also conned Mommy into buying me cheese fries this month. I pretended like I wanted to take the 8 mile walk again, and when Mommy said no and made me turn around right after the Dog n Suds I acted all sad and then pointed out that I could be cheered up if only she'd buy me some cheese fries. Mommy said, "It is 10 a.m. It is WAY too early for cheese fries." I hung my head and looked so sad, then I turned and looked towards the 8 mile hike and looked sadder and Mommy said, "Fine. I'll buy you some cheese fries, but we are only taking the 5 mile walk." I perked right up then and trotted over to the Dog n Suds and told the girl that I wanted cheese fries. It is never too early in the morning for cheese fries.

Finally, I went to see the town's 4th of July fireworks on Saturday. I love fireworks. I like watching all the bits of light appear and I love the ones that fly around like birds (Mommy calls them chasers) and the best ones are the chasers that make screaming noises while they dart around. When the boring ones that are just little flashes of white light with big booms go off I usually turn and glare at Mommy because she should do something about those duds. We went to the feedstore lot to watch with the feedstore regulars, but the elderly foursome whom we usually sit by weren't there this year which was sad. The other regulars were there though as were a bunch of people we hadn't seen before. Mommy brought my sleeping bag for us and a pillow for her and we stopped and got a Pup Cup before the show. We were all comfy on our sleeping bag when a know-it-all little girl about 10 years old and her friend decided to sit behind us. They yammered the whole time about shoes and other non-fireworks things. One of them complained to her friend about the little RV kids in front of us (the RV family are regulars) who were calling out "Oooh!" and "Aaah!". Mommy says she was complaining because they were making it hard for her to hear herself talk. One of the things one of the girls kept saying was how terrible it was to take a dog to see fireworks because "all dogs are afraid of fireworks". What a little idiot. Mommy turned once after about the fourth time the girl said it and said, "If you are talking about my boy, you are wrong. He loves fireworks." but the snotty little girl kept repeating how all dogs are afraid of fireworks and you should lock dogs in small rooms on the 4th of July so they won't get scared and hurt themselves and stuff every 10 minutes or so. Whenever she would say, "dogs" I would turn and look at her because I knew she was talking about me. Mommy would say to me, "Mind nobody's business but your own." and I'd turn back to the fireworks, but it WAS my business since they WERE talking about me. When the show was over the new people (snotty girls included) left bottles and stuff in the parking lot and Mommy and I picked up what we could carry to the garbage so that the feedstore people wouldn't make their lot off limits in the future. Mommy wishes people would teach their kids to behave as well in public as I do.