The Tomato Strikes Again

   Yesterday at about 16 naps before dusk (12 PM) the whole family was talking about a big storm that could cause a "tomato" (tornado). I was really scared because a giant tomato could cause the roof to fall onto my head. The family was bringing some stuff down to our basement and I guess they were planning to get away from a collapsing roof as far as possible.

   About six hours later I heard a loud siren noise that tells everybody to get into a tomato shelter. The whole family except me went down to the basement. That dark hole underground is the only place in the whole house I just cannot bring myself to go to. It has something to do with a traumatic puppy experience. Anyway, some neighbors came over to seek shelter at our house. As if that wasn't enough, another family arrived with their two dogs and their EVIL cat. Luckily the owners had sedated the dogs and the cat, but the sedation wore off way too fast. Everybody stayed down in the basement for about two hours before they finally came upstairs. Funny enough they didn't seem to be scared down there and I even heard laughter.
It rained hard, but luckily no tomato ever hit us or any of our neighbors and I am pretty thankful for that. Now I really need to schedule an appointment with a dog psychiatrist to overcome my basement phobia. I do not want to miss another tomato party.

Camp Bubba

   Last weekend my family went to a Boy Scout family camp. The camp people are not extremely welcoming - dogs were not allowed in the camp! Since my family would be gone for the weekend, I had to stay with my good dog friend Bubba. He is a four year old Shar Pei with a lot of wrinkles. Bubba comes over to my house alot and we play hard.
Anyway, my family dropped me off at Bubba's house for the weekend. His house is so cool. He has his own dog door that let's him go in and out as he likes. In the backyard is a pond with little things swimming in the water. I think they are called tadpoles.

Bubba the Shar Pei

   Bubba and I did a bunch of other stuff but I am guessing we did not do good things since Bubba made me swear I would not tell anybody what happened at Camp Bubba.

The Spikes of Death

   Today my family went to a place where a bunch of water is stored in a valley because of a dam. This dam is the one I talked about in an earlier post that caused all the water to leave. Anyway, there was a beach at the lake and Mom brought a bunch of food. Since some big fish had decided to die right on the beach, we had to move further away to the grass. We walked over to the grassy part and Mom took out her food basket, Jeremiah went to the car and brought out my chain and tied me to it. My family unpacked some bread, cheese, butter, and grapes. I was waiting like a good dog for my food but they only gave me some water and leftover bread... that got me annoyed.
   I decided to take a little afternoon nap when...POKE! I jumped up as if my life depended on it and started howling. Lilly ran over to me barefoot and then SHE started screaming. Mom picked her up. She was screaming because a tiny spike ball was in her foot. Mom put her down and came over to me. She lifted up my paw and sure enough there was also a spike ball in my paw. Mom gently pulled it out and started eating again.

   Since it takes a while to get home I decided to catch up on some sleep when - POKE! One of  the evil spike balls was in my fur! Jeremiah pulled it out then I could sleep in peace. Let me tell you some thing: I am never going back to that lake. 

'Twas the Night Before Easter

   I was just settling down for a Easter snooze when I thought the world was going to end. Little balls of white, icy stuff came falling out of the sky and making a ruckus on the roof. At first I thought they were big raindrops, but when I looked outside the balls were all over the place. Fearfully I dashed under the table for protection. Thankfully it stopped after ten minutes.

The size of the ice balls. Unfortunately it was kind of dark.

   After the tormenting balls went away I went back to bed for a Easter snooze. After a while I heard feline hissing and meowing in our sun room. I walked over to the glass door and could not believe my tired eyes.  A foreign cat!  Our cat Patches was chasing the other cat out of the sun room. After I was sure the cat was gone I went back to bed.


   After a short Easter snooze I was barbarously wakened up by chirping in the sun room again. I sluggishly sauntered over to the glass door. now i know why the strange cat was in the sun room. A little cardinal with a broken wing was in there. I was just to tired to care.


Happy Belated Easter


P.S. The rabbit I talked about two weeks ago went home - Thankfully

The New Kid on the Block

   Today has been one of the most interesting days of my life. This morning at about 10 naps before dawn (5 o'clock) I awoke to something or someone squeaking down on the porch. Assuming the sound was made by the weird cat, I went back to sleeping.
   Then at about 22 naps (9 o'clock) before dusk, I went out to the porch and there was a teeny, tiny, wounded rabbit. To protect my family against home invasions, I immediately started to bark forcefully at the baby rabbit. That probably was not the smartest thing to do. Practically the whole family came out and for some reason they were really mad. And then they told me that the rabbit was staying here for a week. Great. Just great. Now I have to keep a cat and a rabbit in check. At least I have my powerful bark.

Walk by the River

   Today my family took a walk along the river. Since our house is close to the river, we go there frequently. After a short ride in the driving machine we arrived at the parking lot. My dad opened the door and I dashed out  frantically to see the water. Labradors are supposed to love water, so I pretended to be very excited even though I am scared of it. But when I got to the shore all I could see was a very small puddle!  At that time, Dad caught up with me and put on my leash.

   While we walked, I wrecked my brain to find out what happened to the water. My intelligence center came up with the idea that some monster swallowed the water or outer space dogs stole it. But to my astonishment MeMe was wondering about the water thing too and asked dad about it. He said that someone had closed the dam upstream and all the water that used to be here had been drained. Just between you and me - I was kind of relieved. This way there was no need for acting out a love of water that I plainly don't have.

The Dog Scouts

   These past few days Jeremiah has been talking about joining a organization just for boys. At first I thought he said "Joy Scouts." Thinking it was a group of people that search for joy, I reported the news to Budd the dog across the street. He said I misheard and Jeremiah is becoming a Boy Scout, not a "Joy Scout" and they do not look for joy. I asked him how he knew all this. He said that in his old family one of the sons was also a Boy Scout. According to Budd, the Boy Scouts go camping, hiking, rock climbing, and stuff like that. But then he told me they also go fishing, which means they get to eat lots of meat! I sure wished there were Dog Scouts so us dogs could do fun stuff like having eating contests, fishing, doing digging competitions, and playing tug-of-war. Maybe one day there will be the D.S.A. (Dog Scouts of America). Until then I will just listen to Jeremiah's stories of being a Scout.