Fellow Doggies: Paws crossed for everyone who is in the path of Hurricane Gustav and those who may follow!!!

To everyone who is in the sound of our bark: Gustav, a powerful storm is making its way into the Gulf of Mexico. After Gustav comes Hanna, headed somewhere in the Caribbean or to the East Coast. And after that, two or three other, as yet unidentified, waves expected to turn into storms...

We're OK -- but we know others are in the path of Gustav. So we want to bark our best wishes to keep everyone safe!!!

Jake and Just Harry

Toto, I guess we're not in Mayemphis anymore...

Well, we thought we'd hang around Mayemphis for a while until our boy, Gussie, recovered and then cruise on up the river to pay another visit to the whippet waggle in Pa duke ah -- but all of a sudden we were on Aire Ruby, celebrating the carrier's one-year anniversary. After an exciting pawtini- and snack-filled flight with lots of our pals, we found ourselves on top of the Empire State Building in Noo Yawk City (all courtesy of Asta's amazing talents!!).



And then -- there we were, looking down from the Chrysler Building -- a dizzifying experience.



We were all set to travel on to Paris with the gang -- but then we got an urgent message from the folks wondering why the Port of Mayemphis had called them about damages to the paddle wheel dock -- so we thought we'd better get home tout de suite to explain.


How did we get home? Why, when we learned that the koi family in Iowa was being threatened by our Heron-cam's koi-loving cousin, we sent out an all points bulletin to our own reliable HC. He talked to his cousin who decided to leave the koi and fly up to NYC to pick us up.

(Photo courtesy of Ms. Snickers)

So, all is well that ends well: Gussie is doing fine after his surgery. When we explained that we were in a hurry to see a sick friend, the kind Port Authority dropped all charges. The folks have forgiven our impetuosness in causing the damages to the dock (we are, after all, terriers). We had a wonderful time in NYC celebrating Aire Ruby's anniversary. And, hopefully, we averted koi tragedy and set another heron on the right path.

And we have this wonderful souvenir, again, thanks to Asta, to remember the celebration by.

Jake and Just Harry

Going to Gussieland, in Mayemphis Tennessee

With apologies to Paul Simon:

"We're going to Gussieland

Gussieland

In Mayemphis Tennessee

We're going to Gussieland ... And

We've reason to believe

We both will be received

In Gussieland..."


The big question: how to get there?


Run all the way the way we did before? Too hot right now.


Heron-cam? Not sure he can carry two wires across the water.


Train? Poor connections from our end of the Florida peninsula.


Air? Aire Ruby is busy celebrating and there's no way we'll fly on any other carrier.


What's left?


Stay home? Noooooooo.


I know!!! Water!!!


Why don't we just zip down to our local port, hop on a cruise ship to Noo Owlins, then cruise right up the river to Mayemphis. Mayemphis, Tennessee? What a cool idea!!! Just look at the map -- it makes poifekt sense, Ollie!!


Ready Just Harry? Ready. Bro.

Gussie!!! Muzzer!!! We are on our way!!!


Just in case your dad has some time while we're there, I wore my Cardinals hat, and brought the ball Asta-Marie gave me.

Stay brave, pal!!! You'll be out of the Anti Setic in no time flat -- and the nursies will be there to take care of you while we bark with muzzer and distract her as best we can!!!


Wirey love,


Jake

Dogdad's first video experiment

Wowser: We discovered our camera has a video feature. Who knew?????

That's us!!! If we knew we were going to star in this first-ever video, we would have kept our shirts on.

Jake and Just Harry

Unaccustomed as we are to wearing more than a collar and a harness or the occasional bandana or hat...

...we decided to dress up for the last day of the Paw-Limpics. We figured this was the least we could do to celebrate all that Lenny and his family and panel of judges have done to create so much fun for all of us in the last few weeks. So here we are, sporting our Paw-Limpics t-shirts, size large. They arrived yesterday.Mom couldn't manage to get us dressed. She got a head and a paw through, but then got stumped with the second paw. It took Dogdad's professional engineering skill set to get head through, then two paws.

Now that the Paw-Limpics are almost over, we're thinking about our trip to Mayemphis to keep Gussie's muzzer company. We were wondering how to get there -- when all of a sudden we learned that our pal William Tell has given us one of those fancy gold cards. Thank you Tell!!!That means -- in addition to being so grateful for Tell's BFF attention -- we may be able to travel in style instead of either running all the way or taking the Heron-cam. We didn't want to bother Aire Ruby because it's the anniversary of the first flight and Ruby has lots of plans. We haven't quite decided -- but right now we're thinking about hopping on one of those pretty cruise ships that call at the port just a few miles away. Stay tuned.


In the meantime, we've seen so many of our pals with the BFF card that we're stumped as to whom to give it to next. May we just suggest that if you'd like to have it, it's yours, 'cause we're all BFF's here?

Oh, one final thing. When they were in San Francisco, according to the Heron-cam, Dogdad bought a close-up lens for the camera. He was experimenting with it this morning --and this is just a sample of what you might be seeing soon.

Any guesses as to whose eye is which?

Lots of love, pals (under the caladiums). And two last thank you woofs to Lenny!!!



Jake and Just Harry

We don't usually get pawlitical on this blog...

But we are so tickled today that we can't repress our Barking for Barack and Biden!!! Joe Biden is one of our favorite pawliticians of all time. So we are very excited that he is now on the ticket as the Democratic party's vice presidential candidate.

Come to think of it, thank dog, all of our barking of late has had good results -- except for that 6:30 am wake-up stuff on Sunday morning and that occasional 2:00 am howl for no reason at all.

Jake and Just Harry

A New Approach to Weatherdogging

One of the disturbing things about being in a hurricane-prone area is that you're always crossing your paws and hoping the storm goes somewhere else. (If the storm does come your way, you're also crossing your paws and hoping you can make it until it's OK to go outside for a potty break, as I mentioned a few days ago, but that's another story.) Sadly though, just when you're relieved that the storm has been mild in your area and gone off in another direction to other places, you discover that it has caused lots of damage in those other places. So you start to feel guilty.

Fay has indeed been a whacky storm. She left us here in South Florida with much less rain and wind than forecast, but then has proceeded to cause interminable rain and flooding on her erratic slow-moving path across almost our whole state --where we have lots and lots of friends, human and canine.

As a neophyte weather dog, I plan to explore the positive effect of barking to chase away storms. So far barking has had a salutary effect on my pals in need of support. I wonder how the power of the paw will work on future storms.

Right now, however, Just Harry and I are planning a quick trip to Mayemphis next week, to look after Gussie's muzzer and provide a bit of a masculine counterbalance to all the beautiful wirey nurses who will be looking after Gussie as he has a neck lump named Rodney removed on Tuesday. So much to bark about. So little time.

Jake

Love among the Vines

While we dogs and our humans have been fretting about the weather, interesting things have been happening outside on our patio. In particular, as I was pursuing my new meteorological work, looking through the patio doors, I realized that our yellow mandevilla vine had been making moves on our frangipani.

Look for yourselves:

Here's mandevilla, which, having covered our arbor with profuse foliage, is striking out in new directions.

And here's frangipani, aka plumeria, which, while bending in the breeze, suddenly discovered she was being enticed by an insistent extension of the vine as the Ty plant just looked on , shaking his head, and the stealth hibiscus hedge screamed -- stay away from us!!

And what will be the result? Not to be too brutal, but we're afraid Mom and Dogdad will tell mandevilla to mind his own business and stick with his job, i.e., covering the arbor. And plumeria, once the breezes have ceased, will be less approachable.

But it's been fun to watch this mini-romance while it lasted. (And yes, what you see there is a moment of sunshine, after all the rain!!)

Speaking of romance, Asta Marie, do you know the Pirates are playing the Cardinals in St. Louis? Can our budding relationship survive this battle royale?

Your pal, Jake

Weatherdog Here

First of all, we were truly touched by everyone's concern over what Fay might bring to our area and further north. It's always a very iffy proposition when these storms form in the Atlantic or the Gulf and, because of past history with seemingly gentle storms turning nasty, everyone here acts on the side of caution. Fay caused flooding and loss of life when she touched the islands -- so that led all the weather folks to be doubly concerned.

Currently, demonstrating more proof of her unpredictable personality, Fay is traveling diagonally to the northeast across Florida but then, once she gets to Jacksonville, she may turn westward and travel back across I-10 (which goes all the way from Florida to California). How whacky is that?

So if the truth be told -- which we tried to do last night in our first amateur weatherdog report -- the winds and rains turned out to be not much different from an intense summer storm. And we here, at least 15 miles in from the coast, had not one single thunder boomer. JH, especially, was very happy about that.

We did get wet when Dogdad took us out last night and this morning, 'cause it was still raining. But we got the WET DOG TURKISH TOWEL TREATMENT that Mom has perfected over the years when we came back in. Gussie was concerned that we might get moldy paws -- but not a chance with the way that woman attacks our extremities. We might get a photo next time -- it's dramatic.

So that's all for now from what an old friend, Ms. Gimlet Rose, has called WDOG.

Sadly, however, there's more stuff out there in the Atlantic, so I may be called into action again.

Your amateur weatherdog, Jake of Florida, signing off for now.

Amateur Weatherdog Update

To all our pals who have been concerned about our well-being (and "piddling"):

We don't want to take anyone's job in these difficult economic times -- but, looking at the most recent weather map, we don't see any signs of the heavy rain and winds predicted for the next 24 hours here. True? Not true? Only time will tell. We're just reporting as we see it!

Fay just made her first landfall in Key West and is moving to the north, where she will continue to have an impact. But we see just one or two more of the yuck stuff -- heavy rain bands -- coming this way.

Your amateur weatherdog, Jake of Florida, signing off,

New Meaning to the Concept of Crossed Paws

Well, as you may have heard, a globby mess of stormy, wet weather is flirting with our part of the world. This mess has a name: Tropical Storm Fay. So far, she has been pretty disorganized as she's traveled over the Dominan Republic, Haiti, and Cuba -- but now that she has the Florida Keys and the mainland in her sights, she's getting her act together and may even change her name to Hurricane Fay.

We here in South Florida are on what the weather folks call "the dirty side" of the storm. That means, although Fay will probably make landfall somewhere on Florida's West Coast, the wind and rain is on her northeast side -- and that's where we are.

So, what does that mean for dogs? It means very quick potty walks and a lot of crossed paws in between. Having lived through Hurricane Wilma in 2005 with paws crossed for a long long time, we think we can manage. If not -- we have a few time-tested spots in the house we may have to put back into service.

More seriously, we have pals in the Keys, like Essex and Deacon, who we're hoping will be OK. And other pals closer to us, like Booker and Bussie. And then still others over in Tampa Bay, like Ms. Gimlet Rose and Nigel. Not to forget all those in Central Florida and further north.

We'll be thinking about all of you. Stay safe!! What's a few crossed paws among friends?

Jake amd Just Harry

Pee Ess: We have shutters, batteries, flashlights, water, and LOTS OF KIBBLE AND TREATS.

In Memory of Our Friend, Gianna Galvani

Just when we were so happy about our wirey pal, Jackson, coming home in time for his barkday, we learned that a lady we loved dearly passed away in her sleep this morning. We had never met her in person. She was one of our virtual friends. A virtual friend who lived in Italy and who loved wires and bedlingtons and birds and turtles and every living creature on this planet.

She was very talented and had a creative web site where she memorialized wires and other dogs who had crossed the Rainbow Bridge. And now, although we and many other wires and humans are so sad at losing our warm-hearted friend, two of her wires who have been waiting at the Rainbow Bridge a long, long while will know the joy of running to meet their loving mom.

I first met her in cyberspace when I was a puppy, six years ago -- and she surprised me with a new ear. A few years later, when Just Harry came into our lives, she made this photo collage of the two of us. I was afraid no one would recognize me with my two ears down, so she made us name tags. Ironically, those tags have Olympic rings on them -- but we never suspected we'd be writing these sad words during the Olympics -- or the Paw-Lympics.



Good bye dear friend. Rest in peace.


Jake and Just Harry (and our Mom, Joan)

"Take Us Out to the Ballgame!!!"

To pick up where I left off, I eagerly awaited Ms. Asta Marie's arrival from Pittsburgh. Thanks to my trusty feathered friend, the Heron-Cam, she did get here safely. I asked her how she enjoyed the ride, but I'll let her tell you all about it herself. I think she did fine, though.



As soon as she had recovered from her flight and gotten her land paws, we took off for Dolphin Stadium (the professional football stadium that is used for baseball too). We had great seats, just a few rows up right behind home plate, so we could see everything.



We got there early, in time to see the groundskeepers getting things ready. We counted 28 men on the field, with brooms and blowers, hoses, and other equipment. Frankly, I had to contain myself, because I go a little nuts when I see equipment like that -- but in view of the special occasion, I took a deep breath and remained quiet.



We saw the manager talking to the umpires before the game.

And best of all, we saw my favorite player, Albert Pujols. A little later, 'cause Asta Marie wanted to see if she could catch a ball, we moved over to third base and guess what, soon after, a ball came right into our section.

The game was a tense one, right up to the last out of the ninth inning -- but my redbirds won and I knew Dogdad and Mom would be really happy. Not to mention my pal Gussie over there in Mayemphis and anyone else who is a Cardinals fan.


Asta Marie was the perfect companion. Since we're just about the same age, we had lots of things in common to talk about -- even though we've grown up in very different places. We ate hot dogs, and soft pretzels, and we even shared a carton of Edy's slow-churned ice cream (vanilla, of course). What a treat!! And she barked just as loudly as I did when the Cardinals scored a run!!!
Interestingly enough, right in front of us were two guys with Red Sox hats and t-shirts -- we thought perhaps Agatha and Archie had sent them so that we'd remember there are other teams contending for the playoffs in that other league. (Not to mention that the Red Sox had walloped the Cardinals in 2006 when they both were in the World Series, but never mind.)


Then came my dilemma. Since the game was such a good one, we stayed right until the end -- which meant that Asta Marie would have to travel home in the dark. I discussed this with Mom when we got back to our place, and she thought it would be safer to ask Asta Marie to spend the night and fly back to Pittsburgh with the Heron-Cam in the morning. Asta Marie thought about it and when we assured her that she would have her privacy, she agreed.

We all had peanut butter kong bedtime snacks and then Asta Marie curled up downstairs in Just Harry's comfy crate while Just Harry and I went upstairs. First thing in the morning, after breakfast, a few barks, and a little walk, she put on an adorable chapeau and flew home with our Heron-Cam (lucky guy!!).



So yes, pals, I had a swell time and the minutes with Asta Marie just flew by. I hope she felt the same way; but discretion prevents me from saying more, other than that I was honored to have my very first date ever with such a beautiful, fun-loving wire lady.


Thank you Ms. Asta Marie. Thank you Cards for giving us such a sweet evening.

Jake

Brief Interlude to Post Kong Entry

Since I was a very small puppy, I have had a kong with peanut butter as a bedtime snack. It started out when I was still in my crate and I soon came to believe that was the only place I could have it. The folks never dissuaded me from that idea. When Just Harry came along, he too was hoodwinked into thinking kong+peanut butter+bedtime = crate. So here we are.... Sometimes we bring our kong upstairs with us, but mostly we just enjoy it in the crate. Pee Ess: Kong time is the only time I go into my crate.

Heron-Cam Picks Up Ms. Asta Marie for Date in Miami

Well, tonight's the night of my first date -- ever. And it's with Ms. Asta Marie. Since she's a sports-loving lady, I invited her to see the St. Louis Cardinals play the Florida Marlins here at the Dolphins Stadium in Miami.

Early this afternoon, I dispatched our heron-cam to pick her up. Here he is waiting outside our front door for my instructions.
He found the lovely lady at home, all decked out in a very becoming Pittsburgh Pirates cap -- which, since Pittsburgh is also in the National League, was quite appropriate attire.

While the Heron-cam was flying Ms. Asta Marie down to Florida Just Harry and I said a little pre-game prayer for our redbirds. They won the first game of the four-game series, but lost last night after a very long rain delay. It's a very important series if they are to be contenders for the October play offs.

And then, I donned what I hope will be a surprise -- a nice surprise -- for Asta Marie: my full Cardinal bobblehead regalia.

So stay tuned pals. I'll tell you more about the game and our date later, after we get to the ball park. But, like a gentleman should, I'll let Asta Marie decide how many "pawticulars" she wants to reveal.

Oh, and lest I forget, Just Harry is all excited because he and Princess Willow have connected; but he'll tell you more about that himself at another time.

A very trepidatious Jake