On the job...an' naps....

Mom...mom...why do you even ask...when you hired us, it was with the full understanding that we'd be on duty 24/7. Look at the contract..I've got it right here. That means that if we hear somethin', like this morning at 2 & again at 6, well, we're gonna be out there takin' care of business. We have no control of where the threat may be...in this morning's case, it was in the tree by your bedroom window & then on the roof as it tried to escape. That cold weather that came thru last nite, had them critters all kinds of stirred up.

Just a suggestion...if you took naps in the afternoon, like we do...missin' some in the middle of the night wouldn't be such a big deal for you. Just a thought. In the meantime. Check your contract...AHS is on the job & will always be givin' 100%, day or nite

10 pm....do you know what your 'dale(s) has been up to?

AHS report.......10 pm....do you know what your 'dale (s) have been up to?....mom doesn't either.

 Can I help it if it started drizzlin' an' we were still tryin' to apprehend what was under the deck...an' Lexie said she'd go under there an' check it out. I'm certainly not gonna stop her...I thought it was a great plan..I was ready for the capture if she actuallly flushed anythin' out. But since there's three sides an' only one of me...it musta gone out one of the other sides...oh well. It was fun. 



Well, for the moment...till we came in to report to mom. I just have a lil' dirty beard..washed that off in the water bowl....an' then I escaped up to my office tower. Lexie...well....sorry, kid...but off to the shower...<countin' up>..I think that's bath number 4 plus one hose off in less then a week..I think she's goin' for the record.

Trainin' Mom an' Dad

Mom thought it was just a fluke this mornin', when Lexie started barkin' an' barkin' an' barkin' in the kitchen. Mom asked her what she wanted..an' of course to show off, Lexie runs over, gives mom a nose poke an' then runs back into the kitchen w/her ears back like lil' pigtails.

Mom follows her into the kitchen an' sees Lexie standin' by one of the food bowls...the left one...it's empty, but the other one has a lil' food in it.

Now, you gotta understand what our set up is. We've got two food bowls on a lil' stand. They're the same..have the same stuff in 'em. We have always been "free fed"..there's food out there for when ever we just get hungry. We eat together all the time...we've never been food agressive or anythin'...you can take a bone outa one of our mouths an' give it to the other...it's ok..we know we'll get somethin'..mom an' dad are always fair w/us..it's no biggee.

For some reason, Lexie likes to wait by the bowl on the left, so when mom's givin' us somethin' from dinner, she'll just usually give it to Lexie on the left (cause that's where she is) an' me on the right..usually in a lil' plate on the floor. Anyway, mom goes an' fills that bowl an' adds a lil' more to the other one. Lexie just takes a lil' bite an' leaves the kitchen, seemingly happy as a lil' clam, leavin' mom standin' there feelin' like she's just been used.

Tonite....Lexie's in the kitchen barkin' an' barkin'. Mom tells dad about this mornin'. He gets up an' goes to the kitchen...then a minute later, he's comin' out w/one of the food bowls to fill up w/some of our food..then takes it back in the kitchen. Lexie takes a bite or two an' follows him back outa the kitchen lookin' very pleased w/herself.

That bowl on the left was empty..but the one on the right still had some. For some reason, Lexie has decided that the bowl on the left is her personal bowl, an' she don't like it..empty. An' by golly, if it is...she's gonna tell somebody an' get it fixed, like right now! I can't believe that mom an' dad are just now noticin' that she's not all cute fur an' fluff...behind that lil' cutsey smile is a crafty calculatin' lil' 'dale...she's never fooled me for a second.

Ahhh....Good Times

Ok...I'm going on record that I did NOT tell Lexie to break into that fenced off corner of our yard. She just went rogue an' did it on her own in her exuberance to catch a thief.

It's another foggy nite outback. Kinda been an' excitin' nite....like ol' times (mom says "NOT!"). First off, there's been lots of sirens, seems there's a fire of some sort down a block or so...an' all kinds of emergency personnel have been comin' an' goin'. Second, we almost caught one of the thieves of mom's oranges. Somethin' has been raidin' 'em at nite. They get 'em off the trees an' strew 'em all over the yard, takin' just a few bites. The top suspects are r'coons an' 'possums...probably both...they do it to the grapefruit trees, too. We have more fruit on the ground then on the trees.

Anyway, we'd been out patrollin' for awhile. Nice an' quiet like...which makes mom nervous. Then I came inside an' gave mom a big nosepoke. I was alone. Mom asked me where Lexie was...an' I pointed to outside. Mom started gettin' that squinty eye thing as she got up an' opened the back door.

As soon as Lexie heard the backdoor open...she started hollarin'...from waaaayyyy back in the farthest corner. Mom grabbed her big lite an' followed me to where Lexie was makin' all that noise.

There she was, all lit up by mom's big lite....glad to see us, too....on the other side of the chain link fence...stuck. She sat an' looked up at mom...mom stood there shinin' her lite on Lexie...not sayin' a word. Me? I was just standin' there...well, not too close...not takin' a chance on guilt by association....I was tryin' more for a "not my fault, it was all her idea".

Now, I don't know if you know how a chain link fence/gate works. There's this big metal post that goes in the ground...then a long metal pipe that goes across the chain...then a thingee that has a hole for both to connect 'em. It's really held by tension...they have to fit perfectly. Then there's the gate w/the latch. Lexie managed to undo all that.

Almost midnite, foggy, an' mom's rebuilding a fence mostly in the dark...(she says she's gonna make me learn how to hold her lite if we keep this kind of work up). In the meantime, Lexie's runnin' around us w/her nose in the air an' barkin'...insisitin' that somethin's still back there.

Mom's not impressed at this point....an' tells us both to go to the house. I'm done...an' ahead of 'em both. I figure I'm still the good one. In fact, I grabbed my ball an' tried to engage mom in a game when she came in the house.

She wasn't in the mood...in fact, she kinda stormed thru the house to her bathroom, came back w/a towel......because Lexie decided to take a quick dip in the pond on her way back to the house an' was soaked.

Ahhhh....good times.....(mom's still sayin', "NOT!"). :)

If it goes out...it's gotta come back in...

Just another typical nite at our house. Mom gets up to put on her shoes & one of 'em is missing. Dad puts his shoes on & goes to get a flashlite, a black shoe isn't gonna be easy to find at 10 pm at ntie. We all congregate at the back door.

Then mom takes off her one shoe & shows it to Lexie (go figure, the suspected culprit), & tells Lexie to go get her shoe & bring it back in the house. Lexie takes off into the nite, dad just laughs. But about a minute later, here she comes...w/mom's shoe. She dives thru her lil' doggy door & heads for the kitchen. Mom gives her a bacon strip & then picks up her shoe. She don't even care it's all wet. Dad is still amazed. Little does he know, we do this all the time. Mom thinks that if we can drag it outside...by golly we can bring it back inside...& she tells us to do it, too.

Needless to say, Lexie does a lot more of this "bringin' stuff back" than I do, lol. She's always takin' stuff outside.

After that, we go out to play some more & Lexie decides to do some nite time pond diving. When she comes in the house, dad locks her outa the bedroom...so I guess she ain't gonna be doin' any snugglin' tonite w/dad. I still don't understand why I got locked out, too.

Who needs "cardio"?

Mom says she don't need to do any cardio workout...she's got us...specifically, Lexie. 

The neighbor across the street was tellin' mom that Harley (the red lab) got hit by a car on the really busy 4 lane road at the end of our block. (It was just a matter of time since he was always out runnin' loose, & he was very lucky) He's ok, ended up w/just a $600 vet bill & stitches on his head. 

With that in the back of mom's mind, we start out for our walk. 
Just me, mom & Lexie. 

Before she even opens the door, she always tells us to "wait". An' we sit & wait for the door to open. Even after she opens the door, we have to "wait". Lexie is always so excited, she actually vibrates while waiting for the "ok".

Mom, says "ok",  & out we go, w'mom closin' the door behind us. .........Lexie keeps goin'....her lead had slipped outa mom's hand! Me & mom are still on the porch, Lexie is trottin' off down the yard, headed for the street. Mom, calls out, "Lexie...what do you do?" (as calm as she can, which is really hard when she wants to scream),  Lexie hears her & when she gets to the edge of the driveway, she plops her butt down, w/ her lead trailin' behind her. But when she sees us start toward her, she pops back up all excited thinkin' it's ok to continue on...., but she's undecided which way to go. She's startin' to bounce & spin all excited. Mom stops, & then calls her (again, tryin' very hard to just sound normal...but I can hear a lil' squeak of panic).  Then she & I head across the yard, between our house and the next & back to our side fence. Lexie sees us go there, but then we were outa sight...so she runnnnns to where we are. Mom points to the corner & tells her to "look". (I looked, too, but diddn't see anything but old brown leaves). When Lexie goes to "look", mom grabs her lead.

Whew!!! What a way to start our walk! Lexie is still excited & has no clue that anything was amiss. Me? All this time, I'm just trailin' around w/mom watchin' all this & wishin' we could just get on w/our walk. (she has my lead tied around her left hand w/a death grip, that I think was totally unnessary). I'm pretty sure it took about 3 blocks before mom's heart & blood pressure was back to normal. I had a great walk...Lexie, still clueless, but happy as usual.

All good plans......

Ahhh...memories....this was last year.....so much fun w/the folks....

"4 am---"Lexie...did you hear that?" "Yea!!"
 "I'll go wake mom & tell her you gotta go out. You wait by the back door." "Ok"......"mom..mom...mom..mom....(w/paw), we gotta go out..." She finally gets up & opens the door w/a "now you two come right back!"...."Sure mom, as soon as we're finished...". She closes the big door, & takes the panel off the doggy door & then goes back to bed. 

 4:30 am---We've been barkin' our heads off, way off in the back..it excaped over the fence, & we're not givin' up.....Dad calls us in. We come, because...well, it escaped over the fence, and although it's fun to cause a ruckus...the likelyhood of it comin' back over to our side, is nil. He puts the panel in the doggy door & tells us to go to bed. Well...we do. Lexie goes to my bed & I hop up in mom & dad's bed (right on dad's side). I didn't leave much room for him, but I was willin' to share. Then as he was gettin' in....he noticed somethin'...about then (because I had moved over), so did mom. She woke up really quick, when I kinda laid on her & started givin' big ol' kisses. My beard was all wet....and my feet were all wet & muddy. Dad's pillow was kinda muddy, too, now. Here I was bein' all sweet & cuddly. I laid down between them, like a 60lb stuffie & and they just didn't appreciate it. Did I mention, mom had just washed & changed all the sheets & covers...I just love fresh sheets, don't you?"


Kinda different this year...Lexie is still havin' to wear her cone an' be on a lead outside.....an' although we had a cold front come thru, when she started barkin' at the backdoor to go out at 2 am.....it didn't quiet work.  Dad got up to take us out, but mom told him it was a false alarm, that we just wanted to go huntin' an' playin' around in the cold.  An' dang it....he believed her an' got back in bed!

Happy New year's Day

Happy New Year, everybody...hope everyone had a nice NY eve! 

We stayed home w/mom an' dad....snacked all day, then watched the festivities on tv. How about that Mariah Carey? Ha ha ha....that's the first time mom an' dad have watched her do anythin' for years an' years....an' well, they still didn't see her do anythin'....ROFL. 

 We scored big time in the dinner dept....we got some steak, baked potatoes, an' carrots. Mom had cooked lobster tails, too...but she didn't share ANY of that! Her excuse was they were small....but I think she was just bein' stingy. 

Then about time for the old year to roll over to the new...it was like a war zone outside. Now, fireworks are illegal here, but that sure didn't stop some people. In fact, there has never been so 
much....ever...around us. These were big, almost professional types..an' a lot of 'em, all around. Good thing we had had a lil' rain, 'cause it's been so dry. Anyway, Lexie popped up at the backdoor at the first couple of pops, an' she wanted to go out to see what it was. Now, last fourth of July, she was scared of 'em. She could hear, but couldn't see what they were. This time...she was out there in the back yard an' was lookin' towards where the noises were comin' from an' wasn't scared. She could see they weren't in our yard, an' it was all ok...noisy..but ok. Dad said we had to all go back inside in case some of those "idiots" started firin' guns in the air, since they never consider the fact that what goes up comes down...if you know what I mean. 

 I guess Lexie was really feelin' all proud an' stuff...'cause she decided of all things, to sleep up in mom an' dad's bed....in my spot! She never sleeps there w/them...especially w/her cone! I decided that she's put up w/a lot, an' let her. I slept on the floor in her spot by mom. It's all good.
 Today, it's all grey, overcast an' s'posed to rain. Not much is goin' on outside...the weather is gonna change from warm an' wet to cold, so all the critters are layin' low. Mom says this is another just take it easy day...she's gonna cook somethin'...an' my M'shell is comin' over...maybe......
So, that's it for now....hope your day is a quiet an' nice take it easy day, too!