My Monthly Diary for May, 2013

Well, May was a bit of a tough month for me.  The weather was very stormy and cold and then hot and then cold again which is hard on my back and hips and hocks.  Mommy did a lot of gardening and I did a lot of supervising.  I no longer like to lie on the hard ground so I insist that Mommy bring my sleeping bag or bed out for me if she is going to work in the yard.  Then, if she moves to a section out of my sight I lie in bed and do my "pitiful me" demand bark which sounds like "Arf!" 10 second wait "Arf!" 10 second wait "Arf!" repeat.  Until Mommy comes to move my bed closer to where she is working.  It is a good system.

We had an exciting day in the middle of the month when one of the Crazy Cat Lady's feral cats had a litter of kittens in our front garden.  I tried to get Mommy to look in the spot for two days but she didn't pay attention to me.  Then when she went to trim the bushes the mama cat came out and went after her!  Mommy called the feral cat spayers and a woman came out to try to catch the mama and the kittens, but mama cat was too smart for them and she stole her kittens back without getting trapped.  She took the kittens to the Crazy Cat Lady's house and the Crazy Cat Lady hid them so Mommy and the cat spayer couldn't get them.  Poor kitties.  There were five kitties in the nest, but one of them was dead, so we don't know if the other four will survive or not.

Mommy and I took a long one mile hike which I posted about already.  I went to the vet and Mommy told her that she didn't think that I was getting as much benefit from the laser treatments as I used to. The vet agreed that things weren't looking too good, but there isn't much she can do for me. She has upped the laser as high as she can.

Then at the end of the month Mommy and I went up to Wisconsin.  Mommy's youngest brother and brother-out-law (soon to be brother-IN-LAW! Yeah Minnesota!) were up there and the three of them worked around the outside of the house.  I wanted to go yell at the neighbors' dog so I snuck into the woods while Mommy wasn't watching and was working my way there when Mommy noticed I was gone.  Mommy came into the woods after me and told me to come RIGHT NOW.  I didn't want to so I tried running down the hill to avoid her.  Well, my back end didn't obey and the next thing I knew I was sliding down the hill backwards and then I was on my back in the water.  Mommy came leaping down the hill to rescue me and in her haste to pull her shoes and socks off she threw one of her socks in the water. Then she jumped in and helped me up and we had to wade back to where the shore was lower so she could help me get out.  It was kind of embarrassing.  Grandma and Grandpa came after all the outside work was done.

The next day Mommy's oldest brother and his new wife and his daughter and her new husband (these were the weddings Mommy and I went to) came over and helped wash windows.  Then some of them took a boat ride and I went along.  Grandpa's new boat isn't as comfortable as the old one because I'm not allowed on the seats, but I can see out well if I stand.  Mommy says maybe she'll figure out a way to make a raised platform for me to lie on for rides.

Me on the boat

After the boat ride I hung back on the shore to eat grass while all the humans went up to the house and wouldn't you know it, the next thing I knew I was sliding backwards down the hill into the lake AGAIN!!  This time I landed sitting down and not upside down, which was a good thing because Mommy didn't notice I hadn't followed everyone up right away.  She came down and helped me out of the lake (after I threw up the grass and then peed in the lake first).  This back end is getting annoying. Everyone left the next day, but Mommy and I stayed on another day.  This was a good thing because Grandpa wanted help fixing a door and I wanted to take my hike on the trail in town.  There were a lot of dogs on the trail that day too, so that was fun.

After our hike Mommy and I hung out down at the dock and we saw all these little fish in the water around the dock, but I was too tired to try to catch them.

Mommy forgot something when we went down to the dock so she went up the hill and spotted this little guy!

He was probably 1 day old at most

He was walking around bleating.  Mommy thinks that he probably spotted me and didn't know that not all long legged long neck quadrupeds were his mom and he got worried that she had forgotten to pick him up.  You can hear him bleating in this video:

Baby deer have no smell so I didn't know he was in the woods when we went down past him, and after he realized his mom wasn't coming for him right away he went back to his leafy spot in the woods where all you could see of him were is little ears.  The people talking in the video are Grandma and Grandpa if you wondered what they sounded like.  Don't worry, his mom came and got him at sunset.

A Very Long One Mile Hike

This afternoon, after Mommy ran some errands and stuff and when she got home I told her I wanted to take a hike.  She said it was very hot out, comparatively speaking, and she didn't think I really wanted to do that.  I told her I did, she said, "Maybe later." I then proceeded to follower her around the house demand barking non-stop until she gave in.  She says demand barking is a VERY bad habit I've picked up, but I see no downside to it.  So, into the car we went and off to a forest preserve for a hike.

I was very excited to be at the preserve and I had to first check out all the sniffs

 Mommy took a picture of this bob-o-link while she was waiting for me to finish my sniffing.

 The dandelions were really putting on a show

 

I was about 1/4 of a mile into the hike when I decided that it was too hot to be hiking.

So I took a nice break.

 Mommy took a picture of these Canada geese while she was waiting for me to get up and hike again.

Then she started grumbling about her having told me it was going to be too hot for me.

We got to the second boardwalk and I wanted to swim, but there is no swimming in the water at this preserve because of all the water fowl.  Mommy and I were glad to see the water levels were up though considering this pond had totally dried out by last fall.

 Anyway, since I wasn't allowed to swim and it was so hot I decided to take another sit down. Right in the middle of the boardwalk.  People had to bike very carefully past me, but there was no way I was moving.

 

Mommy didn't grumble much about this sit down because she got to watch this blue winged teal come swimming by.

 Then he turned around and came back with his wife so Mommy could see her too.

After the teal show we got up and continued our hike.  When we got to the next bench I announced I was too tired to go on and we needed to take another long break.

Mommy sitting on the bench pour me some water

I took a nap under the bench for about a half hour while Mommy watched the bob-o-links some more.  

This guy was picking dandelions.  We don't know if he was eating the seeds or gathering the fluff for his nest, but he spent a long time picking them.

 

 Doesn't this one look coy?

 

 This guy was singing and showing off his colors for everyone to admire.

A lady came by and asked Mommy if I was okay and if Mommy had brought any water for me.  Mommy explained that I was fine, but I was almost 13 and I was just hot and tired.  She told her that I could do two miles last summer, but one mile seemed to be too hard this year and she thought maybe my summer hiking days were over.  The lady gave Mommy a dirty look and tsk tsked her for forcing such an old dog to go out on a hike.  Mommy held her tongue and did not say, "HE forced ME to come out on the hike, lady."

Anyway, after my nap we continued our walk. You can see how dusty I was from sleeping on the crushed gravel trail.

 About 1/2 way done

 

One more break was needed before we got to the trail head.

 

Mommy spotted this Northern shoveler shoveling while I was taking my last break.

When we got to the trail head Mommy stopped at the drinking fountain and filled my bowl up four times for me.  I drank about 1/2 a bowl each time and then she poured the rest over me and soaked my paws and ears to help cool me down.

I was very happy to snuggle up on my pillow and drive home.

But we didn't go straight home! Mommy drove me to the lake by our house and parked a few doors down from the swimming spot and we walked to the water so I could swim and get nice and cool.  I thought Mommy was crazy wanting me to take a walk, but as reluctant as I was to walk to the lake, I sure was happy to take a nice long swim and after the swim I thought we should walk into town for a Pupcup, but Mommy said no.  So instead we came home and I got a giant dog milk bone and another nice nap.

So, I only hiked one mile, but it took us two hours to complete.

My Blog Post for April, 2013

This month we had cold and ice when normally Mommy and I are putting the vegetable garden in (I usually help by digging holes and planting toys).  Then it turned into spring and Mommy and I took a hike, which I blogged about earlier this month.  Then, just when we thought spring was here a few days later we got SNOW! So it wasn't really spring after all.  

Then a few days after that we had RAIN and RAIN and RAIN and Mommy took the day off because our basement had three inches of water in 2/3 of it, plus all the roads to Mommy's work were closed except one and that one crosses a river which hadn't crested yet so Mommy was afraid she might get to work and not be able to get home.  Normally it is fun having Mommy home, but this time she stayed in the basement ALL DAY and I can't go down there anymore, so it was boring, so I made sure to bark for her every hour or so.  That weekend Mommy spent more time in the basement and then we spent time outside while Mommy fixed gutters and window wells and put rocks around the foundation of the house and stuff like that even though most of the water in the basement came up from the floor drain and not through the foundation, but Mommy says better safe than sorry.

After that the weather got hot, summer hot.  I do not like these massive weather changes because it makes my back and hips hurt even though I'm still having my laser treatments.  The vet upped the level of the laser for me the last time because my right leg started dragging again.  We all hope it is just the weather and not me not getting help from the laser anymore.  That would be bad.

Despite the dragging leg and scuffy foot I still have been wanting to walk and hike and sometimes I insist on doing too much, Mommy will stop me if I try to do something extreme, like insist on taking the 8 mile walk. She never gives in on that anymore, but she does still allow me to do up to 6 miles if I want to.  So we took a real long walk through town.  The next day I refused to walk at ALL!   

But after that I felt well enough that I wanted to go swimming. Unfortunately the lake by our house had been treated for invasive plants so I can't swim in it until mid May so Mommy agreed to take me to one of my favorite preserves where there are two lakes I can swim in.  A couple weeks had passed since the big rain so Mommy and I were surprised to see how flooded the lake still was.

You can see the water is about 6 feet over the shore and the little bushes are all getting their toes wet

I hadn't planned to swim quite this early in the hike.  I went in the water to look for a frog and I accidentally stepped off the flooded grass and into the lake.  Mommy was laughing at me and I was not happy about that.

We got to this section of the trail between the two lakes and we saw the water had flooded over it connecting the two lakes.  Mommy said, "Well it is only about ankle deep, we can wade it." so we did.

Which brought us to this part of the trail. I was MUCH deeper than ankle deep.  The water came up above my knees when we were in the deepest part.  Mommy said she hadn't planned on swimming that day.  

When we got to the other side of the lakes we took the bridge over the river and you could see how high the water still was.

See all that gunk hanging off the bottom of that tree (which should be on a small island)? That is all the stuff that got stuck in the tree when the river was at its highest.  That was a LOT of water!

We walked into the woods on the other side of the river.  Mommy wanted to go left, but I wanted to go right so we went right. I then took her through a mowed path in the woods and Mommy was happy because I had taken her to a big patch of two of her favorite wildflowers.

White Trout Lily

Trillium

After the woods hiking we went back to the lake and I went swimming on purpose about five minutes before we got back to the car so the car would have that wet dog smell for days after.

Finally! Spring!

We FINALLY had some close to normal weather this weekend so Mommy and I got out early today for a hike.  We drove down to the southern end of the river hike that I like so much and hiked for 4 hours, with a 45 minute break in the middle.

Here I am ready to start. You can see how happy I am to finally have a good day and clean trail to hike on.

We saw a lot of burned stumps.  They also stunk of herbicide.  The trail has a problem with buckthorn and they try to control it by chopping it down, burning the stumps and then applying herbicide around the charred stump.

This is the 1/2 way point.  This is a vernal pool and the sound you hear are the chorus frogs.  Mommy and I were going to eat at the bench by this pond, but there were people on it.  Grrrrr.

So we turned around and went back to the previous bench to eat lunch.  Mommy read for 45 minutes and I took a nap.

Mommy took a picture here because this spot used to be great big trees, but then when we had the storm that knocked over my squirrel tree all the big old trees here got knocked over too.  Now this spot seems to have decided to become prairie.

OMD! Look what I found on the trail!  What is a crawdad doing on a trail?  When I tried to sniff her she stood up and threatened me with her pinchers.  

Here she is bigified. She had a whole tail full of eggs and was trying to get to the other side of the trail.  Mommy was worried she'd get run over by a bike and couldn't believe she was trying to leave the swamp on one side for the prairie on the other so she scooped her up in a poop bag and carried her back to the swamp side.  The crawfish turned right around and started walking towards the prairie side again so Mommy picked her up AGAIN and carried her to the prairie side and the crawfish happily headed off into the dry prairie.  Weird.

We stopped when we were about a 1/2 mile from the car to watch this bird fish.  We think it is some kind of grebe, but we aren't sure.

Here it is bigified so you can see what a great meal it caught!

We got back to the car and I fell asleep as soon as Mommy started driving.  It was a great 5.5 mile hike.

My Monthly Diary for March, 2013

Well, March is over and they are telling me it is spring, but I'm not believing it.  I'm not feeling too good today. I pooped in the house last night and I don't want to go for a walk, which is really not like me.  I wanted to walk right after I had my toe amputated after all.  Anyway, Mommy is a bit worried right now, but I figured it would be a good time to tell you what I did in March.

The big news is that the Tastee Freez opened on March 1st and Mommy and I took a short hike in the snow on March 3rd and then, after the hike, we stopped at the Tastee Freez and I got my first Pup Cup of the season.  Mmmmm Pup Cups...

Because Mother Nature decided to give us all our winter snow in March, Mommy had a snow day this month.  I like snow days because it means we go for walks and I get to hang out in the backyard and bark at the snowblower and stuff.  But this snow day Mommy did some in the house chores and then decided to catch up on some of the tv shows she had recorded and not watched.  This is okay, except when it was time for me to shift my napping spot from the kitchen to the livingroom MOMMY WAS ON THE COUCH!!  I went over to my livingroom bed and turned around and turned around and turned around and turned around and glared at Mommy and turned around and turned around and turned around. Mommy looked over at me and I glared at her harder and I turned around and turned around and FINALLY Mommy said, "Do you want to sit on the couch? Here, I'll move over." and she did and I climbed up and lay down and went to sleep right away.  Seriously, how slow on the uptake can she be?  A little while later we looked out the window at the bird feeders and we saw that a whole flock of red-winged blackbirds had flown in during the storm.  It is wrong for summer birds to arrive in town in the middle of a snow day.

As you know if you read my previous post, Mommy insisted on taking our Daylight Savings Hike even though it was pouring down rain all day that day.  I was not amused.  Mommy and I also took a New Year hike too to celebrate the beginning of spring.  It was much better weather that day.

Also in March I got prescribed a new walking schedule by the vet.  See, I've been having these rogue pooping incidents like I mentioned at the start.  Mommy got really concerned when one morning she heard me rustling around in my bed and then she suddenly smelled poo.  I had pooped while lying on my bed.  Luckily my butt end was off the bed, so I hadn't pooped on the bed, but I had made a circle of poo around the bed.  Mommy yelled, "What the hell?!!" and sent me outside.  She wasn't mad at me but worried because I hadn't even asked to go out.  Then that night just before we fell asleep I suddenly realized I had to poop so I jumped off the bed and ran out of the bedroom pooping all the way.  Mommy called the vet and the vet said that she thought that one of three things was happening.  They were:

1. I wasn't totally pooping when I went outside because my back hurts so I was having to poop again sooner than expected
2. Because of my back I'm not getting much warning when I have to poop and so I am surprised by it
3. Both 1 and 2

Mommy said she thought it was #3 so the vet told Mommy that I needed to

1. go out right away in the morning and not get to lie around in bed until I feel like getting up.
2. be sure to poop before bed which meant I was supposed to either be followed around by Mommy in the backyard or take a walk

Well, I DO NOT like taking walks before bed.  The first night I walked with her, but as soon as we were about two houses down I kept trying to get her to go back home.  She wouldn't, but I got my revenge by refusing to poop.  The second night I refused to leave the driveway, so I won that battle.   Then Mommy started following me around the backyard.  Well, I don't like being followed around in the backyard by Mommy when I am trying to poop either.  So when I saw what she was doing I stopped and stared at her until she went and did something else.  Our compromise is that Mommy lets me out about an hour before bed now, and then about a half hour after that and then again right before we go to bed.  This has worked really well until last night when I realized at two a.m. that I had to poop so I ran out of the room and pooped in the middle of the plant room.  Mommy wasn't happy about that wake-up call.  I have my next laser treatment on Saturday and Mommy says she is going to talk to the vet about today.  Hopefully the vet will figure out how to stop this.

Mommy is Crazy, or, Our Daylight Savings Day Hike

Mommy and I have a tradition of taking an all day hike on Daylight Savings Day.  This started because we didn't do it on my first Daylight Savings Day and when Mommy told me it was bedtime an hour earlier than usual I thought she was kidding.  She went to bed and I joined her and jumped up and down on her and poked her with squeaky toys and bit her feet and stuff and got myself so wound up I didn't go to sleep until 2 hours after our regular bedtime or 3 hours after Mommy TRIED to go to bed.  So, the next year she started the Daylight Savings Day Hike.  We'd get out early in the morning and not come home until sunset.  We'd usually hike between 20 and 30 miles that day and I'd be so tired that night that bedtime couldn't come too soon.

This morning Mommy woke up and looked out the window and said, "Oh, its raining. No all day hike today, but we can go somewhere this afternoon."  When this afternoon rolled around it was STILL raining.  Mommy hated to not take a Daylight Savings Day Hike so she packed up our stuff and off we went to the state park for a short hike.  When we got there there were two cars parked in the lot with fishermen huddling in them and the ranger truck was there with the rangers huddling in it, but Mommy would not be deterred and off we went.  The trail was a combination of ice and slush and besides rain, there was fog.

The beginning of the hike, looking out over the frozen lagoon

Mommy thought the fog was bad when we started but about a half mile into the hike the trail looked like this

 I'm glad it is a new moon tomorrow and not a full moon

or there might have been werewolves in that

When we got to the half way point we heard a bunch of red-winged blackbirds and grackles complaining and then Mommy spotted them up in a tree yelling at this guy.

 See the little bird above him yelling insults?

He is a young hawk of some kind we think either a red-tail or a red-shoulder, but we don't know for sure because the fog obscured him too much.  It started to really rain hard after the bird spotting and about a quarter of a mile down the trail we discovered that the runoff from the snow melt and rain combined to make a small creek for us to wade through.  It was about 24 feet wide and eight inches deep.  It is a good thing Mommy has hooves instead of feet or she might have been cold walking the rest of the trail because her boots did not keep her feet dry at all once the water went over the toes, and in fact her left boot split on the instep when she was half way across so her left boot totally filled with water.  Shortly before we got back to the car the rain turned into more of a solid mist, but that didn't help us much. Mommy stripped off her soaked jacket, hat and gloves when we got to the car and she debated about taking off her boots but decided against it.  I got a nice rubdown with the towel and home we went.

What I look like after hiking two miles in the rain

I'm not talking to Mommy

I think maybe Mommy should reconsider sticking with some of her traditions.

My Monthly Diary for February, 2013

Mommy always complains that even though February has the fewest days of any month it lasts longer than all the others and, even though the days are supposedly getting longer, they sure seem dark to her.

This month We finally got some actual snow.  We had hardly had any snow all year long and then it snowed, and it snowed and it snowed and it snowed.  I love when it snows and I always insist on playing fetch in the snow.  This is because in the summer I tend to get overheated rather quickly when I play fetch, but I don't get overheated in the snow!  This year though Mommy limited my snow fetch games because of my hind end.  Just because I fell over every time I ran after the ball and took three days to recover from each ball game doesn't mean she should limit me, but she did. Mean Mommy.

When it was time for my laser treatment this month my normal vet was on vacation so I had to see the man vet who I like well enough, but I don't really trust ever since he thought he could dry my toe stump with a blowdryer during my amputation recovery period.  Mommy and I got there about 10 minutes early, which is our habit, and we waited.  When the ten minutes were up and they hadn't called me yet I started barking at the receptionist.  She was the weekend receptionist not the weekday one and she seemed a little slow.  She just kind of stared at me and didn't apologize to me or jump up and get the vet.  Shame on her.  Mommy told me I had to quiet down and I grudgingly did so. About 10 minutes after that we FINALLY got called (Mommy said that is because the man vet is just as nice as my normal vet and he sometimes goes over on his appointments answering questions).  Anyway we went into the exam room and I stood by the back door and stared at it waiting for the vet.  Finally he came in and when I saw who it was I went back to Mommy until I was sure he didn't have a blowdryer.  Mommy told him I'd taken a hard fall on the ice the day before and asked that he work a bit more on the hip I fell on and he said he'd see what he could do.  Then he took my leash and I dragged him to the door.  When he opened the door I dragged him out of the room and all the way to the laser room.  When I got in there I lay down on the pad and stared at him until he started up the machine and did my treatment.  As soon as he started I fell asleep and had to be woken up to turn over and again when it was time to go back to Mommy.  I'll admit he did a good job.

Mommy got sick this month too.  It wasn't the fun sick where Mommy goes to bed and I get to cuddle all day with her. It was the annoying sick where Mommy goes to bed and just when I get all comfy cuddled up next to her, she gets up and goes to the bathroom and she keeps this pattern up for the whole day and night.  I find this kind of sick very annoying so I told her towards the end of day one that I'd had enough of it and when she got out of bed I moved and took all the pillows and refused to give them back.  The next day Mommy kind of moped around doing her chores and sitting down a lot which was boring so the day after that, since it was a Sunday, when she let me out in the backyard, I told her I wanted to go hiking.

Mommy said, "No, we aren't hiking today. I've been sick for two days. I'm not hiking."  I stood by the back gate and stared at the garage. Mommy said no. I stared at the garage. Mommy said no and told me to come inside.  I looked right at her then turned and walked out to the middle of the backyard and lay down in the snow.  Mommy said, "Fine, pout in the snow." and went inside.  Twenty minutes later she came back and called me to come in.  I ignored her. She called again. I ignored her. She called again. I ignored her. She finally sighed and said, "Fine, we'll go for a hike later this afternoon." I got up and trotted back to the house and came in.  A couple hours after that I walked up to Mommy and barked at her reminding her that it was afternoon and time for our hike.  Mommy grumbled and got dressed and we went on a 3.5 mile hike.

 There are so many good things to smell when you hike in the snow

 We saw lots of coots

 And some redheads

 Mommy was irritated by the snowmobilers

The sign tells them to use the small path on the left

which turns towards the woods

but see how many of them took the hiking/skiing path instead?

Bad snowmobilers!

Mommy got warm towards the end

and didn't want to wear her scarf anymore

so I wore it for a while

Mommy went to bed early that night for some reason.