The Host with the Most

Well, folks, it's been awhile but BOY do I have a story to tell you . . .

A couple of weeks ago I got wind of a plan to have me and my buddy Murray host the relatives. That would be Luna and Cori, whose folks were going on vacation. They talked with Mom and Dad and decided that it would be fun to have a dog vacation right here at my house. What fun!

(That's Cori's tail to the left, with Murray following.)

So Cori and Luna arrived, along with their leashes, a big plastic food container, a measuring cup and a small bottle of pills for Cori's thyroid condition. (They travel light--no beds, no bowls, no toys, and nothing to do . . . apparently they were told that we provide EVERYTHING for a good vacation here at my house.)

Once they arrived, Murray and I greeted them with lots of sniffs and tail wags and out the door we went. Our fenced backyard is a great place to greet visitors, with plenty of room to race uphill and down, play in the woods, and run races around the tree. Zoom--across the deck we'd go. Then zoom--back again and around and around. Murray's kind of slowing down now that he's 15, but even he took a few laps with the pack.

After some playtime, it became apparent that everyone needed a nap. Some of us laid in the sunshine. And some of us preferred the couch. Or a recliner. Or the rug in front of the TV. Whatever we wanted. My parents are all for good dog times.

Luna, however, has some annoying habits. She whines. She hops over the gate and runs upstairs, then insists she absolutely cannot hop over the gate in the opposite direction, but has to have someone lift her over. She does this thing called "playing with her food", and then dives head first into the catfood instead. And she sleeps in my parents' room when she visits. She's such a . . . GIRL!

And Cori? Cori's a guy. He DIGS! Boy, did he do a number on the yard--but it was all because of the Next Door Chihuahua. We hate that little guy, and we're not really sure he's a dog. Anyway, Cori decided to show him. One day we were out barking through the fence and Next Door Chihuahua is yapping his fool head off. Cori takes off digging under the fence, paws flying and dirt coming out like he's going to China. My boy gets in about chest deep, then looks over his shoulder to see my parents coming for him. He got hauled into the house and lectured. (Apparently the neighbor had CALLED them to ask if they had seen what Cori was doing, and could they PLEASE make him stop.) Kind of like a prison break! Oh, Cori, it was fun while it lasted . . . and you got away with it twice more during your time here. (Ha, ha.) Mom and Dad had to go buy big bags of rocks and fill the holes along the fence line. I smile to myself every time I see them.

We did have lots of fun while my guests were here, and I have to say I miss them now that they're gone. I spent today napping and resting up for the next visit. I can hardly wait.

Something New is Coming . . .

It's been awhile, folks, but I've been nosing around the family and have found something new . . . I'm going to be a grand-dog! (At least I think that is what it's called.) Very, very soon, my people will become grandparents. I'm preparing to be all cool when they bring the new baby to visit, although I've never really met one. I hear it is kind of like a puppy--and everyone loves pups!

In other news, summer has arrived in a big way and my pool is out again. Happy, happy wagging tails for that. It has been very hot already, and water is just what us dog guys love. Murray and I have both been in the pool, especially after barking loudly through the fence at the chihuahua next door. (Murray thinks the translation of chihuahua means "rat on stilts", but his Spanish is not so good.)

Hope you enjoyed my photos so you can get a good view of how handsome I'm looking these days. More later . . .

Hawkeye

I'm a Calendar Dog!

I am proud and so excited to tell my followers that I am one of the labs that got their picture in the Lab Rescue 2011 calendar--not once, but TWICE (i.e., bark, bark). I have the center puppy picture in March and the bottom left picture in December. First, I want to thank the Lab Rescue of the LRCP, Inc. organization which this year has rescued 750 labs and placed them in loving homes! And a special thanks goes out to their “pack mama” Carol. Please see their web page www.lab-rescue.org.

None of this would have been possible without my human godparents, Mike and Jordan. Mike rescued me from a cold Georgia night in November ‘08. Mike and Jordan became my foster parents and drove me 10 hrs to my forever home in Bowie, MD. Jordan and Mike also took the pictures that my human Dad e-mailed the calendar people. So, as we all celebrate the holidays with visions of new bones dancing in our heads, please remember the dogs who are still wishing for a good home. Adopt.
Thanks and Merry Christmas!

Hawkeye

Do Fence Me In

It’s mid-way through my second summer and it looks like this is going to be my best one ever! My people parents fenced in the backyard of our home, which has eased my access to the outdoors. Before the fence, when I went out I was tethered to the deck so I would not get lost. While it was a 30-foot line, it still prevented me from smelling and digging in parts of my yard, and only one dog at a time could go out. I wasn’t always so good at taking turns.

My parents are glad the tether is gone, as sometimes I would run around and get all tangled around trees and make them come out in the rain to untangle me (big laughing dog smile). But most important, in retrospect it prevented Murray and me from being outside at the same time. The paw-full of you that follow this blog know that my biggest gripe about Murray was his steadfast refusal to play with me. But the fence has changed that! We now almost always go out at the same time and things are OK. We pee along the fence, standing next to each other like boys do. What started as exploring the backyard together has turned into running around together. Murray has gotten a little quicker despite his years and is back in shape. I have become more lithe and muscled as I have been running laps around the crepe myrtle tree, and up and down the hill to the woods. I’ve also been known to take a flying leap onto the hammock. We play Frisbee, too, and have figured out how to haul around large chunks of firewood from the woodpile.

And get this: Murray and I treed a big gray and white cat together! The marauding cat had the nerve to get into our backyard, so we ran after him all the way up the hill into the woods at the back of the yard, where he climbed a tall tree with his claws and sat there swishing his puffed-up tail at us. (Who knew they could do THAT?!?) We stood our ground and barked and bayed and wagged—he wasn’t coming down that tree anytime soon. Well, except that the tree was close enough to the fence that he just hopped over it after awhile and ran away . . . But this was a success by dog standards. He hasn’t been back, so nyah, nyah, nyah, nyah.

While I still have my doggy wading pool from last year, I now get to play in the water stream when mom waters the flowers with the hose. Any time the hose is on, I come running. And I had a bath in my pool the other day, which I enjoyed immensely since it has been so hot.

All in all, a totally AWESOME summer and still 2 months to go! Hope you’re enjoying yours.
Hawkeye

Spring!

I'm beginning to get this "seasons" thing. First it was cold, then it warmed up, then it got hot, then the leaves fell. And then it SNOWED--lots of snow! And now it's getting warm again, with bees in the azalea bushes by the front door and the grass has been cut. So, folks, is that all the seasons? If so, swimming pool time is coming up soon, and I can hardly wait. My webbed feet are ready to paddle.

Almost every morning there are new smells to check out when dad or mom opens the door to the deck. I am spending more and more time looking outside at all the wildlife that passes through my yard. My bark is quite loud enough to keep trespassing cats at a good stand-off distance. All of us are glad of new things we can do and watch now that spring is here.

One thing I need to share with you isn't so good. As some of you know, my sister dog Daisy died on February 20, at the people age of 14. Although I knew Daisy for as long as I can remember, it was only for ~ 1 human year. So here is a link from Jordan celebrating the fluffy life of my sister Daisy:
http://jordansometimes.blogspot.com/2010/02/daisy-may.html
Daisy never really warmed up to me. My parents say it’s because my first week living with her, I pulled her by her tail all the way across the kitchen because she would not play with me. Being a puppy then (still am, I’m told) I was not aware that dogs can lose their “playing” legs when they get into double digit years (whatever that is? Sure as heck was not lectured on at Petsmart School). Anyway, most of us regret at least one thing we did out of a youthful mixture of enthusiasm and ignorance. And I regret that. Sorry, Daisy.

So that leaves me with grumpy old Murray. I've seen way too much of his snarling behavior lately--such as when I take his smoked pig ear treat, or try to eat his dinner. Can't imagine what gets into him . . . and Mom says she didn't know he could snarl like that, since he never did it until I came to live here. (I think she favors older siblings.)

So, how's your spring going? Stop by and say hello if you're out for a walk or would like to bring me a Milk Bone or two.

Excuses, excuses

I know, it has been quite a while since I posted . . . but I have an excuse or two! First, my paws may have grown too big to type. (OK, I didn't think you'd buy that one.) The second excuse is that my human parents and I were spending a great deal of time helping the Iowa Hawkeyes through the 2009 football season to a win in the Orange Bowl.

"But Hawk," you might say, "your “the Hawkeye football team has not lost since I moved to Bowie” streak was broken!" It really was not my fault; please let me explain.

First, the Northwestern Wildcats had to break the ankle of our starting quarterback and knock out our starting running back to win. Second, Northwestern has a purple wildcat that looms over their field and makes a dreadful roaring sound. Homeland Security may even have said that cat is in cahoots with the one-eyed, one-horned flying purple people eater. What is a pup to do?

"OK," you say, "I will give you that. But how can you explain the loss to the Ohio State Buckeyes? They are a bunch of nuts!" Maybe . . . but while their mascot is a nut, their football is very good. When you consider that the game was at Ohio State, and that Iowa had a freshman quarterback making his first start, and that the game went into overtime, I think my Hawkeye team did real well. Plus, Iowa shut out the Minnesota Golden Gophers for the second strait year (he, he). So you see, football season was very stressful and prevented me from blogging as I should. (Good thing I don't get all tail-waggy about basketball until March Madness--not that the Hawkeyes will even make the tournament this year.)

Now that my sporting diversions are explained, I must say I had a great holiday season. In late November my cousins Luna and Cori came up from Georgia to celebrate the first anniversary of me living in MD. Luna said they were here for Thanksgiving because it is celebrated by their human parents--leave it to a bossy girl to try and burst your bubble! Anyway, it was good to have them here at Thanksgiving, and Christmas. And Murray, Daisy and I got a whole bunch of pig ears as a gift--what a delicacy.

So what's new? SNOW! I didn't properly appreciate it last year when I was all young and kind of hairless. That cold stuff on a pup's bare tummy wasn't fun, and I got so scared when a noisy snowplow came by while I was outside that I could barely stand to go out the front door for awhile. But this year is different. We've had lots of fluffy white snow to bark at, play in, run through, and have fun in. And tonight is the motherlode of snow: two to three feet of it! Maybe taller than me, even! I can hardly wait. Will sleep with one eye open to see what happens next . . . wish us luck!

Hawkeye

A playdate for Hawkeye!

So, who says only people can have friends?
Last Saturday I was invited to my friend Dexter's house to play in his backyard. So who, you ask, is Dexter?
Dexter is an almost-year-old brown dog called a Boxer, and we met at intermediate obedience class. We liked each other, and talked during class. (That didn't go over too well, as we both got the Coke can stuffed with pennies shaken at us so we'd be quiet.) We stopped the barking, but when "socialization time" rolled around at the end of each class we'd play tug with the same toys and roll around on the floor. Turns out we're about the same weight, so it was an even match. Sometimes I got the rope, and sometimes Dexter did.
Our people saw we were having fun, and when classes came to an end my mom and dad, and Dexter's mom, decided we should get together. Apparently they have things called "schedules", though, and it took a few weeks for them to pull it off.
But before I could figure out the calendar in the kitchen, mom and dad put the leash on me and we all went in the car to Mary's house to play. Dexter was excited to have me in his home--so much so that we were quickly ushered out the back door to play. We both ran around on the deck, down the stairs, through the yard, and around in crazy circles. We pounced, we chased, we rolled in the dirt, we ran after a squirrel, we panted, and we drank water from bowls that Dexter's mom thoughtfully provided. (Boy, was she surprised to find out how much labs like to stick their feet in the bowl--guess Dexter doesn't do that!)
Mom and Dad got to hear the story of how Dexter tried to eat a bat before he had his rabies shots--that could have turned out badly, but he survived his quarantine, the bat wasn't rabid, and THEN Dexter got his shots and could come home. So glad I never met a bat!
Anyway, I'm really looking forward to another play date with Dexter in his fenced backyard. It's good to have friends.