My Monthly Diary for July, 2011

This was a crazy month! First off, Mommy has been shopping around for a lifting harness for me to help me up and down stairs and stuff. She couldn't find the one she wanted so she decided to make me one. She didn't want to have to make the vest part from scratch so I got to go to a place called Bass Pro Shops to try on hunting vests. I was very good in the store trying on the vests so Mommy took me to a part of the store where they have GREAT BIG FISH in a tank! There was also a person in the tank cleaning it. I found it all very interesting. I was disappointed however when the check out people did not have bones. What kind of check out people don't have bones? Anyway, we got home with the vest and Mommy put it on me to figure out how to attach the lifting straps. That is when I realized that she expected me to actually WEAR the dorky vest she had me trying on!

Dorky vest

Well I pouted so much she gave up and decided to return the hunting vest and make a new vest from scratch.

Then we had the Big Storm which I wrote about in a previous post. Then Mommy and I took the Dumbest Vacation EVER, which I also wrote about already. Then Mommy made me the lifting harness and the day she finished it she got an e-mail from someone who sent her a link for a harness they liked. It wasn't the harness Mommy was looking for, but the one above it on the website was!! Mommy called the company and got advice about fitting me for it and ordered it that day.

Mommy felt so bad about the Dumbest Vacation Ever that she took me for a really short REAL vacation to Wisconsin. We went up on a Saturday morning and came home on a Sunday night. Mommy had hoped it would be cooler up there than at home, but it wasn't, but at least we had a nice lake to swim in. When we got there I ran down to the dock and was shocked to discover that the peddle boat was not out in the water! I stood on the dock and stared at the empty spot and whined. Mommy said, "Nobody put the boat in, and it takes two people to drop in, so we can't do the boat this time." Then she opened the boathouse door to get the cushy things I like to lie on on the dock and there was the peddle boat! I ran up to it and looked at it, then looked at Mommy, then looked at it, then back at Mommy, then I whined, then I sighed and lay down by it. Mommy said, "Fine, fine! I'll try to MacGyver it in for you." and then she went and got a garden cart and some rope and managed to get the boat out of the boathouse and into the lake by herself! I knew she could do it! I got four rides in two days so it was well worth it. We tried out the lifting harness Mommy had made for me and it worked well, but Mommy thought the one she had bought would be better, but it hadn't arrived by that weekend. Besides boating I got to swim and look for fish and take a short trail hike that I like to a hidden lake where I get to swim. It was a good short vacation.

A couple days after we got back the new harness arrived. Mommy said this was a very good thing because she could use it to get me down into our basement when the weather got to the 100s during the day. I didn't mind being in the basement, but I really resented that she put the baby gate up at the bottom of the stairs like I was an irresponsible puppy or something! She said she did it because she didn't want me to try to go up the stairs by myself and wind up falling down them while she was gone, but I still think it was demeaning. We've slept on the porch almost every night during July because it was so hot and Mommy spent a few days down in the basement with me cleaning it up because it was the coolest place in the house.

Then last weekend Mommy said we were going to take another dumb vacation, but if I was very good I might get a pet fish! So, Mommy put the empty ice chests into the car and we drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. There had been a really big rain storm the night before so we had to take a strange route down there because some of the roads we would normally drive were flooded and closed. The strange route ended up taking us by the pet store where Mommy was going to get me the fish, so I didn't really have to be a good boy, because we stopped there FIRST and got my new fish friend. He is a betta and we named him Pelles. (Pelles is the Welsh name for The Fisher King in the King Arthur stories for those of you not up on your Welsh Arthurian legends) Mommy took me into the pet store and I checked out all the other fish in the tanks while Mommy read the instructions for the "Betta Buffet" Mommy picked out a bowl for the fish and the gravel and then I chose a plastic plant and a plastic dinosaur to put in the bowl. The instructions said you got two plastic toys, but I was only interested in the dinosaur, so Mommy picked a plastic skull. Then Mommy held the cups of betta fish down for me to see and I decided I liked Pelles best. He was unusual looking as all the other fish were blue or red or purple, but he is white with red and blue on him.

Pelles

The people in the pet store all commented on how I was the first dog they had ever seen who was interested in fish and Mommy told them that she was buying the fish for me. They laughed that she was buying me a pet. Then Mommy, Pelles and I drove down to Grandma and Grandpa's house. Grandma didn't believe that I was interested in having a fish until Mommy put him up on the counter and then brought me into the house. I went straight to the counter to watch him swim around and Grandma had to admit that I liked my fish! Then Mommy left Pelles on the counter and went out to get an ice chest and when she came back in I was standing with my front feet on the counter and I had the lip of the fish bowl in my mouth and I was trying to lift it up so I could put it down on the ground. Mommy said that was VERY NO behavior and I needed to keep the fish on the counter. I don't see why, after all, he is MY fish. So, anyway, Mommy helped grandma pack up some dishes and sheets and towels and stuff and then she put a whole bunch of boxes in our car and then she went downstairs and filled our ice chest with all the food she had taken down there on the Dumbest Vacation Ever and then Pelles and I got in the car and we drove to Grandma and Grandpa's new house. Pelles went onto the counter in there and I had to sit in an empty back room by myself while Mommy and Grandma and Grandpa brought in three cars full of boxes. Then Mommy filled up her ice chests with all the food that she had left at THAT house and Pelles, Mommy and I headed home. At first Mommy put Pelles' bowl on one of the end tables, but then she decided the spot was too dark and secluded so she brought up the table that my birdies used to live on and put Pelles bowl on that. That night I stole Pelles food and tried to open it, but Mommy caught me and told me THAT was NO too. I didn't know pet ownership came with so many rules. I love watching him swim and I check on him each morning and whenever I come in from my walks.

Pelles on the end table

Finally this month Mommy and I went to visit Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred at their place in Door County, Wisconsin. I was very upset when Mommy took Pelles out of the house and didn't come back with him, but she said he couldn't come on this vacation and Benji's mom was going to babysit him. Even without Pelles I had a great time at Auntie Naomi's house. The night we got there Mommy put on my new lifting harness and we went to something called a "campground" to visit with Auntie Naomi's daughter and her boyfriend and his parents. I'm not sure what a campground is exactly, but it seems that the people build a fire and then sit around it and eat and drink and talk. I napped for most of it. Mommy says I'm not the camping type of dog which is why we've never done it, and I was happy to get back to Auntie Naomi's house and go to bed. The next morning we went to a place called Cave Point County Park that I had been to the first time we went up there to visit. Mommy remembered that I liked it a lot and she wanted me to get to go there again. It was great. We walked a little bit down a trail and then Mommy used my lifting harness to get me down on a rocky slab where I could play in the water and people could admire me. It was very crowded so there were a lot of people there to admire me.

Are there fish out there?

Then we went back up to the trail (Mommy used the lifting harness to help me back up the rocks) and we walked a bit further down the trail to see what the shore looked like from there. I wore my lifting harness as my walking harness so that Mommy could help me if we got to an obstruction that I couldn't cross on my own. There were a bunch of fallen trees on the trail so the humans were slow, but I got around all of them on my own.

Hurry up!

Eventually we got to a bit of rocky beach where there weren't a lot of people and I wanted to go back down to the water so Mommy said okay and helped me down with my harness. I wanted to go down to that section of beach because there was a HUGE pile of dead alewives on it. Alewives are little invasive herrings and they die off in big bunches when the lake gets really hot really fast and then they wash up on the shore. Well, Mommy got as far as saying, "Don't..." when I dove into the pile and started to roll and roll. It was heavenly!

Alewives!
(You can see my lifting harness really well in this shot)

Mommy didn't think it was great though so she went back to the trail and gave Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred her stuff and then we waded into the lake and Mommy tried to rinse as much of the dead fish stink off me as she could. Mostly what she managed to do though was get the dead fish stink on her. After that we went back to the car and we drove to the Pamida with all the windows open for some reason. Mommy bought shampoo and laundry soap and we went back to Auntie Naomi's house, but I wasn't allowed in. Instead Mommy and I got in our car and we drove down to the beach by Auntie Naomi's house and went in the water there. The shore was really mucky and Mommy lost her shoes in the muck and had to get them out and then rinse them off in the lake before putting them back on. I was really rather tired for yet another swim and so I didn't want to go back in, but Mommy said I had to and we waded into some water up to my belly and then Mommy pulled out the bottle of shampoo and the swim turned into a BATH!!! That was very mean. Then Mommy washed my harness and we got back in the car and went back to Auntie Naomi's house where Mommy changed into her pjs and put all her clothes and our towels into the washer. Everyone had lunch on the porch since Mommy was still too smelly to be allowed in the house and after lunch Mommy took a shower. (Mommy had planned to shower first, but Auntie Naomi was hungry so they ate first).

Mean Mommy washed off all my fish stink!

I was very tired that night so I stayed home ALL ALONE for the first time at Auntie Naomi's house while Mommy and Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred went out to eat with the people we visited at the campground. I was a good boy and didn't even throw up or anything.

The next day Auntie Naomi and Uncle Fred took us to see the cabin where they used to stay before they moved up there and then we took a Feed the Fish tour. Feed the Fish is a movie that your humans may have seen. It stars Tony Shalhoub, who grew up in the area, and it was filmed all around there. They showed us the places where major scenes took place and then the little green shack that Tony Shalhoub owns and in the movie looks like it is in the woods, but is really by the lake. We got out of the car so we could walk by his property and I made sure to pee on it.

You can't see the green shack but my right hind foot is kind of pointing to it.

Mommy says we are lucky Tony Shalhoub wasn't there or we might have seen this:
After the shack we drove by a barn that in the movie looks like it is right on the lake, but it is actually in the woods! Those movie people are weird.

After the tour we had lunch and then we packed up and headed home. On the way we stopped at a point that is 1/2 way between the equator and the North Pole.

If I'm half way to the North Pole, why is it so hot?

Then at one point on the drive Mommy stopped the car and we sat and sat and then the road lifted up right in front of us!

Some people got out of their cars to look

Then the road went back down and we could drive on it again. Mommy says it was a drawbridge and it opened up to let this boat go by:

After that I pretty much slept the whole rest of the way home. Vacations are tiring and this month has been exhausting.

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 7

My Camp Diary
Saturday, July 26, 2003

I slept until 7:00 because I was sooo exhausted from that CAT IN A CAGE!! When we did get up I went to look for the CAT IN A CAGE!! I looked under the tables and behind the door and other places I knew a cat could hide, but he was definitely gone.

Mommy packed up the car and I got worried. What if she decided to leave me here? When other dogs came to say hi I barked at them. I then told Mommy that I wanted to sit in the car. It was cool and raining so Mommy said it was okay.

I missed breakfast and the awards ceremony, but Mommy got my patches for me. She said some of the other doggies got 8 patches, but she thought I did rather well with only 4.

We left camp about noon and I slept the whole way home. When we got home I took another nap. Then it was bedtime.

My plans for next week are take a nap, eat some food, follow up with a nap, followed by a short nap, followed by some more napping, dinner, followed by bedtime. I hope I get to go back to camp again in a couple years!

If you'd like to learn more about the Dog Scouts of America or find out how you can go to camp, click here.

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 6

My Camp Diary
Friday, July 25, 2003

Lonnie reminded everyone at breakfast to keep their dogs under control especially when yellow bandana dogs are around and I guess the Belgians' mommy got mad because she left.

We took a five mile backpack hike and then I painted my best painting yet, "On the Puppy Playground." Then we went to our final Dog Scout test.

On the Puppy Playground
Can you see the three black dogs of three sizes running?

We were in the big room and they wheeled in A CAT IN A CAGE!! They expected us to "Leave It!" for A CAT IN A CAGE!! Some of the other dogs didn't even seem to notice or care that there was A CAT IN A CAGE!! I did though and I barked and barked. Mommy made me leave the room quite a few times. The other dogs would walk up to THE CAT IN A CAGE, look at it and then look away and walk off. They walked away from A CAT IN A CAGE!! I walked up to it and sniffed and sniffed and sniffed and had to be dragged off. Then I barked and barked. Then I stared. The other doggies all passed, but I wanted that CAT IN A CAGE!! Mommy and I had to stay about an hour after class before I could finally "Leave It!" the CAT IN A CAGE. The way they finally got me to pass was that when I would turn away from THE CAT IN A CAGE, I would get to walk up to THE CAT IN THE CAGE!! Then if I walked past it I got to beat up my anxiety toy.

THERE IS A CAT IN THAT CAGE!!!
Photo by Joanne Webber

After all that work Mommy and I took the rest of the day off. We just sat around reading and stuff, but each time we went back into the lodge I checked to see if I could find THE CAT IN THE CAGE!!

All the tired puppies and their people

Mommy and me relaxing
Photo by Joanne Webber

Later, Mommy and I tried something called "Rally-O". We had to walk around a course and do various obedience things whenever we got to a station. Mommy was sure a klutz at it! We tried both courses once and then took a little break and then tried to do them again, this time for a Rally-O patch. I only have so much patience for obedience so, after we did the first course perfectly, I decided that was enough. I'd let Mommy line me up for the second course and we'd do the first station and then I'd jump up and grab my leash and shake it and fight Mommy and refuse to move any further. Mommy tried it three times, but I made sure I did the same thing each time. So, Mommy said, "We quit." and we didn't get the patch. Mommy says maybe we will find a Rally-O group by us since SHE thought it was fun. HMPH!

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 5

My Camp Diary
Thursday, July 24, 2003

I was very tired last night. I slept until almost 7:00! We took a short walk before breakfast and then we did a two mile backpacking hike. I was very good and walked in the crowd. I didn't mind when a shepherd barked at me. I even walked next to a Belgian for awhile!

After the hike Mommy and I practiced "Leave It!" with food until I got it down well enough to pass the test. (Cheese and peanut butter! They expected me to choose not to eat cheese and peanut butter!) Did another painting for Mommy, but I wasn't having fun. It was a nice one though and she called, "A Bouquet for Mommy." Afterwards I got to play in the play yard with BOTH Emma and Skippy! Then Mommy had my caricature drawn.

A Bouquet for Mommy

Skippy

My caricature
I don't like to look people other than Mommy in the eye

I went for a boat ride on the lake with Mommy and got to swim for a loooong time and I chased frogs too. It was lots of fun. Since I was such a good boy for the whole day and didn't bark at anyone Mommy let me go for a dog's choice walk. I chose to walk down the trail and come back behind the pond. When we got to the pond Mommy called out that I was coming and everyone made sure their dogs were doing something besides running up to me except for the Belgian pair. Their Mommy let them both run straight at me! I got scared and barked and lunged at them and Mommy had to haul me off. She said that they only wanted to play with me but she understood that it wasn't my fault and I was still a good boy.

Mommy didn't say anything to anyone except Alex's mommy, but someone who was down at the pond told Lonnie because she came to talk to us about it later that night. I went to bed early and Mommy made a letterboxing stamp for me.

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 4

My Camp Diary
Wednesday, July 23, 2003

Shadow woke us up around 4:00 a.m. by throwing up. She had spent all day yesterday swimming, swimming, swimming. She even escaped from our room and tried to run out the door for a swim! She must have swallowed an awful lot of water. After the disturbance, I overslept and didn't wake until the little dogs down the hall barked at 6:30 so I told Mommy to get up. After she was dressed, I got back into bed and went back to sleep. Mommy shook her head and joined me.

About a half hour later we took our walk. Mommy put my food into the training treats bag because I have decided not to eat any meals. We had our first group hike. It was fun. I walked with a doggie named Jade. Jade looked like a littler version of me! Mommy said he was the sport model. Jade didn't want to walk much because he didn't like his pack and he wanted his Mommy (he was with his Daddy). I walked with Emma for awhile too and I even walked beside a Belgian shepherd. I think Belgians are German shepherds with a different hairdo so it was very brave of me to walk with her.

Me

Jade, the sport model of me

Jade and me

After the hike Mommy was talking to some people and I was sitting with the dogs when Katja came up. I kept waiting for her to turn into a shepherd again, but she didn't. She made me nervous, though, so I glared at her, then I puffed at her and finally I barked. For some reason Mommy kept trying to get my attention the whole time I was watching Katja. Doesn't she realize you can't trust a wereshepherd?

Mommy made me take a nap for about a 1/2 hour. Then we went to painting class in the "arfs and crafts" building. Mommy put this funny thing on my paw and dipped some stuff in paint and then had me do that "scrape the tray" trick we had worked on. It was amazing! When I scraped the tray paint showed up on the paper taped to it! I painted a nice picture Mommy named "Walk in Tall Wildflowers." Mommy wanted me to paint another one, but I didn't want to so I just made one swipe of blue paint. Then I tried to walk away and I painted some nice blue marks on the floor. Mommy called the second painting "Operant Conditioning Blues."

Photo of me painting by Joanne Webber

My first ever painting! Walk in Tall Wildflowers.

Operant Conditioning Blues

Paint covered paws

We cleaned up and went for a walk and then Mommy went to put me back in the room for my lunchtime nap. Alex and Shadow were already napping in their crates. When we passed Shadow's crate she went nuts barking and biting at the bars. She had snapped at some other dogs that day too. Mommy told her person what she was doing, and Shadow's mommy decided they would leave camp for the day and move to the motel for the nights. I think Shadow had a bad tummy ache from all that swimming.

Mommy took me to try Search and Rescue. I really thought it was exciting when the other dogs were watching as their humans ran off into the woods. Finally, it was our turn and Mommy ran off in the woods while the instructor held on to me. Then Mommy called and the instructor let go of me. I ran into the woods and found Mommy and then I looked all around in the bushes and up in the trees to see what it was that everyone was chasing. Mommy grabbed my leash and made me leave the woods. She wanted to practice some more after class so we went to a fenced area and Mommy had me wait while she hid. When she called me, I was busy sniffing the fenced in area. She called again and I went towards her, looked right at her and went to investigate other things in the fenced in area. Why did she think finding her would be fun? Squirrels and goats had been in the fenced in area. Finding THEIR smells was what was FUN!

What missing person?
Can't you smell how nice these flowers are?

Passed more of the Dog Scout tests then just hung out with Mommy, did some swimming and stuff until dinnertime nap. After dinner we went to a talk about geocaching and then we played a game called "My Dog Can Do That!" I did a trick nobody else could do!!! I carried a ball across a goal line made of doggie treats. It was EASY for me because Mommy set it up so that I saw a door on the other side of the goal line and then she said, "Get Out!" and I know that means run through the nearest doorway, so I ran straight to the door.

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 3

My Camp Diary
Tuesday, July 22, 2003

Woke Mommy up at 6:30. I refused breakfast. We took a walk (No shepherds). Then Mommy went and bought me a pack. I look SOOO cool in it! We took a practice walk then went to backpacking orientation. Learned what to put in your pack. A leash, collar, water, water bowl, poop bags, flashlight, first aid kit, matches, id, compass and knife. We tried walking with a filled canteen, but the water sloshed around and made me walk funny so I made Mommy buy a platypus (collapsible canteen) for me.

Mommy made me take a LOOONG nap while she went to a lecture about aggression and had lunch. We skipped the second Dog Scout Class because we had missed the first one last night. I started practicing "Look at the gooood shepherd." with a shepherd named Braxel. If I looked at him and didn't go nuts, I got a treat. Maybe shepherds aren't so very terrible after all.

Braxel the Good Shepherd

Went to the water safety class but was told I could only be a "Puppy Paddler" because I need to stay on a leash, but I already KNOW HOW to swim, so it took no time to complete that course!! Mommy says that means we have free time every day. Then someone said that we couldn't get our patch unless we took the dog scout class which we had skipped the first two of. So, we had to do a make-up of the parts we missed and pass the tests to catch up. It wasn't hard though because it was the first parts of a CGC.

Nap time and dinner again then we went to try carting, but I didn't like the rottie that was there so we left. I got to have some playtime with Emma (I LOVE Emma she's a lab), then we practiced painting again and worked on sitting by shepherds some more.

The lovely Emma

Neva is not a shepherd because she is white

Mommy wanted to go to a PhoDOGgraphy class so I came along. While class was going on Katja came by. I was lying on my side half sleeping when I saw her. I wagged my tail at her and she wagged back. Then she went in her room. That was when I made the horrifying discovery that Katja was a wereshepherd!! She can go from a floppy-eared not-a-shepherd to a German shepherd just by putting her head in the door! I barked hysterically at her, and it took Mommy quite a while to calm me down.

Katja the wereshepherd

I was more than ready for bedtime after our busy day.

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 2

My Camp Diary

Monday, July 21, 2003

Another sleepless night. Alex had to sleep in his crate and he spent a lot of the night showing his displeasure by clicking his toenails on the plastic bottom and moaning. I just couldn't get comfy on the bed because it was smaller than the one at home and Mommy was hogging all the space. Besides, how comfy can you get when you are on an eight foot lead?

Alex

Decided to wake Mommy up at 6:00 a.m. (that's 5:00 a.m. our time). Finally agreed to poop in the puppy play yard. Mommy tried to get me to eat breakfast, but nope. I want my feeding station. Mommy said, "Maybe you'll eat if we go off to a quiet spot in the woods." She gathered up my food and stuff and wrapped my leash three times around her hand and we went to get some fruit for her. When she was shutting the fridge Kyra, a German Shepherd, came up. Kyra's mommy said, "Can we come by?" Mommy said, "Wait." That is when Kyra's mommy made the fatal mistake of trying to move backwards to be out of our sight. I SAW THAT GERMAN SHEPHERD MOVE!! With a ROAR I yanked the leash out of Mommy's hand and went after Kyra. My food flew everywhere. Kyra's mommy was too quick for me though because she let go of her G.S. and pinned me to the wall with her leg. I kept growling and barking while Kyra tried to let herself out the door. Mommy grabbed my tail and hauled me off to the car. Boy was she mad at me! She said one more of these and we were going home. I gave her a 3 inch by 1 inch bruise on her thumb from yanking the leash too!

Kyra

I had my picture taken for our camp ID and we kind of just avoided other doggies until lunch. Mommy tried eating with me in the dining room, but then suddenly decided that naptime for doggies would be a better idea. I didn't think it would! Another roommate arrived. She was a black and white border collie named Shadow. Mommy told shepherd owners to keep away from me at introductions. Then Mommy went to a class to learn the first stages of how to paint and I had to have another nap. She came back and we practiced this silly Mommy trick where she would click this thing and hand me a treat. Mommys are strange. Dinner, then painting practice. Mommy held a board and if I scraped my foot on it she would click that thing and give me a treat. It was fun for awhile, but then, half way through practice I had had enough so I stopped cooperating. I spit out the treats and paced and whined and bumped Mommy with my head and tried to climb on her lap until she FINALLY got the hint and we went for a walk and quiet time. At least Mommy walked me to the road so I could poop in comfort! I refused dinner again, but then got mad at Shadow when she came over to sample it. I didn't growl, I just gave her my "sideways eyes."

Me learning to paint

The path to the woods trail

Tired me

Flashback to Dog Scout Camp--Day 1

It is Dog Scout Camp season. Back in July of 2003 Mommy and I went to Dog Scout Camp. We were very excited to go when we signed up, but then two things happened: 1. I got attacked at the dog park by a rottweiler and a black and tan German shepherd which started my extreme fear of big dogs and 2. I tore my ACL which meant that I wasn't supposed to do any running or jumping so Mommy's dreams of letting me try agility went out the window. Even with the restrictions we had fun though. I have decided to re-post my camp diary that was lost when my old Geocities page went away. Here is Day 1:

My Dog Scout Camp Diary

Sunday, July 20, 2003

Didn't get much sleep last night because Mommy had packed bags. She said we were going somewhere that wasn't Wisconsin. We left the house about 11:00 a.m. and we drove and drove and drove and drove. At first Mommy would stop every once in a while and roll down her window and throw something out into a basket. I tried to fetch what she was throwing the first few times, but my seatbelt held me back. After a while I got bored and decided to nap. We stopped at a gas station and I drank some water and peed and ate some of the breakfast I refused this morning, and then we got back in the car for more driving. It was past my dinner time by the time Mommy stopped.

We were in a place I had never seen before. Mommy left me in the car and went into a big building.

Then she came out and moved the car and started to unpack. After what seemed like FOREVER she let me out to sniff trees and pee, then we went into the big building.


They gave me a nice yellow bandana to wear. I liked it until a lab named Chelsea told me it meant I was a bad dog.* I showed her bad dog. I tried to bite her. Mommy was appalled. She said the yellow bandana means I don't like German Shepherds, not that I don't like EVERYONE. Mommy gave me my dinner, but I refused to eat it. I ate Mommy's bread from her dinner instead. Then we took a walk in the woods. Mommy kept telling me to poop, but nope. There are no curbs and no lawns, how does she expect me to poop here? There was a lake, but she wouldn't let me swim.


When we went back to our room there was a poodle in it. He had a yellow bandana too. We decided we are the cool dogs. Mommy tried to get me to go into the dog crate she rented for the week. NO WAY!! Finally she figured out she could attach a rope to the bed and I could sleep with her, and stay in my space only. Good thing, otherwise we would be sleeping in the car.


*NOTE: Chelsea and her Mommy wrote me on August 19 to tell me that Chelsea DID NOT tell me the yellow bandana meant I was a bad dog. What she said was, "You're bad, Dog!" because black dogs look so good in yellow. So, much to my embarrassment, I must admit it seems the fight was all caused by a silly misunderstanding.