Wordless Wednesday: Dogdad's Home!!

Mom just has to wait...

A (Not So) Funny Thing Happened to Me While We Were at "Animal Camp!"

As the folks had a two-edged business trip to Sarasota, Florida, and Birmingam, Alabama, last week, Just Harry and I made arrangements for a week at our favorite "animal camp." {We also arranged to be air lifted out for a quick trip to Ioway to welcome Ms. Katie Lamb to her new home; but that's another story -- see Scruffy, Lacie and Stanny's blog for the details.]

Anyway -- upon our return, just as I was getting into my full rhythm of barking and jumping and barking and jumping and barking and jumping with the other campers, I suddenly found myself in a stuporous state and when I came to , I discovered that I was poodly. Yep, take a look, poodly!!!

And when they brought me a mirror to gaze upon my fortunately still wirey face, I discovered that my canines were sparkly white. I fully suspect that Mom had engineered (no, that's wrong, Dogdad's the engineer, Mom's the planner) - I fully suspect that Mom had planned this little surprise for me when she realized that my gums were not looking too chic. Just Harry apparently escaped this time as his situation wasn't as serious ... but I warned him to beware!!! When we finally got home last Friday, we had lots of cuddles to make up for lost time.

But what we most like to do when we get home from camp is -- snooze, and snooze, and snooze some more.

Once we got our home legs back, we checked out the patio.
At least JH did. I still had some more snoozes in me.
That is, until JH decided it was "is that you, my brother," time.
Must be that fresh breath and those pearly whites! {He kissed me. Ewwww! By the way, has anybody seen my Gabbi, except on FB?}

And finally -- back to the kitchen, where hope always springs eternal when Dogdad is at the counter
One of us on either side, just in case.
We'll have more via our pal, H.C. Bird, about what went on in Sarasota and Birmingam. But in the meantime - here is one of the few absolutely positively South Florida spring time signs: the beautiful but short-lived yellow tabebuia.
Wirey love, with constant thoughts and prayers for our fluffy pal in Southwest France, Digby, who is fighting the awful results of a brown tick bite!

Jake

Harry and the Cable Guys

On Tuesday, our cable service suddenly ceased serving. When we called our provider, they tried and tried to send a new signal to restart the service, but nothing worked. So they scheduled a technician to come out on Thursday morning -- yesterday.

As Mom waited for his arrival, she suddenly heard -- big surprise -- loud, persistent, ear-splitting barking. Just Harry kept sniffing at the door. And our barking frenzy kept getting louder and louder. Not seeing a truck outside, Mom thought we were just enjoying the sound of our own voices, as we sometimes do -- but then when we wouldn't stop barking, she looked through the peephole in the door and saw them: two cable guys.

What to do next? Open the door and have the two of us fight over who should have the honor of greeting the men? Or -- brilliant idea -- give us treats to distract us while she opened the door and apologized for the delay and racket? "I didn't see a truck." (They had parked it down the street.) "I have two dogs." (Yep.) "They like to bark." (Duh!!)

Well, she decided on the treat approach and let the two cable guys in. Our treats finished, we were happy to greet the men in our usual friendly (i.e., boisterous) way. But they liked us. They really liked us!And as they tried to figure out what was wrong, we offered to help.


Long story short: it turned out that the cable company itself had erroneously cut our service off on Tuesday instead of that of a neighbor who had moved.

To figure that out, however, they had to go outside, and open the gates of our patio. Which meant that Mom had to keep us inside. At one point she decided that one of us -- I, Jake --would be better off in the bathroom with the door closed so she wouldn't have to worry about the two of us getting in each other's way.

Not such a brilliant idea this time: I hate being confined. I first expressed my displeasure by barking. But then, when she didn't come get me right away I decided to leave her a token of how p___ed I was. It was only later, when she herself went into the bathroom that she discovered the puddle I had left. So, here's a lesson for all of you moms who think that dogs don't do things on purpose when they are upset, forget it. We do. [Note from Mom: Jakey had been out not an hour before and always holds it until we take him out.]


While we are writing this light-hearted tale, our hearts are actually very heavy thinking of our leader, Jackson, who has suffered a few more incidents since his stroke a few weeks ago and is fighting for his life. So we once again need all your prayers, zen, power of the paw. Please! He is such a fighter. Such a cool guy. And his Js are such amazing peeps.

Wirey love to all -- especially to our pals in England, Scotland, and parts of Europe who are affected by that cloud of volcanic ash!!

Jake

Wheelie Wednesday: Back from Scruffs

Well, here we are -- Jake and Just Harry's wheelie-lookalikes, Inspecteurs Jacques E. May Gray and Justin Herkimer Clues? Oh! -- back from Scruffs -- that amazing wheelie show our pal Eric Square Dog hosted across the pond. But when we say we're back, that means we're back sitting on the cheese plates in the dining room cupboard, the pauvre accommodations arranged for us. How sad is that? Such pitiful accommodations for our wheelie-lookalike selves who have demonstrated such prowess in investigating serious crimes. For example, is that blood on the knife below? Or could it possibly be ketchup? And is that a wire fox terrier on the cover of Agatha Christie's "Dumb Witness?" Why, of course! Did you think we would not know that?
And what about all those clues: Pearls? Jeweled camel box? Coins? A piece of rope? A Swiss Army knife? Tell-tale postcards? Fortunately we world-renowned inspecteurs were on the case -- as you can see from these out-takes from our Scruffs entry!

Ah, but now that we have tasted the joys of international travel -- and compared them with our confined living arrangements -- we are not so sure that we can remain on those cheese plates forever. Adventure calls.

Puppy Nostalgia

With all the wonderful news about puppies -- Bertie in Scotland to fill Gail's heart with new love and Katie in Ioway to bring new joy to Mama Lamb, Butcho and the catses -- Mom started thinking about when I was a puppy. It's appropriate at this time of the year because she and Dogdad brought me home at the end of March in 2002. It was just a few days before Passover, which is why my middle name is Elijah, in honor of the prophet of peace who comes to visit (and drink a cup of wine) during the Passover Seder.

So, filled with nostalgia, Mom dug out this old photo of moi at 4 months (not sure what happened to my ear in the intervening years). She tells me I was beyond cute. But what else is a mom to say??

Bertie, Katie -- we're breathlessly waiting for more adorable wire fox terrier puppiness!!

Jake Elijah

'Tis the Season!!!!

OK pals, Remember when most of us said, "Wait until next year!!"?? Well, it's here!!! Tonight is the start of "next year!" We bought our MLB package last night -- and we're ready. And Mom even found my missing Cardinals collar. Remember when I lost it and she searched under all the bushes on our walkie path? Well months after last season, Dogdad was sitting on my bench and looked down and saw that my collar had gotten caught on Mom's chair. I do have the new one that Gussie sent me -- but it's nice to know that we have a spare.

OK Albert, we're ready!!

So here's to all our baseball blogging buddies: Cardinals: Gussie and Teka; Red Sox: Agatha and Archie; Phillies: Khyra and Koobie; Yankees and D'Backs: Joey and Tanner; Yankees: Ina and her Jeter; Pirates: Lacie and Stan and Scruffy and Dewey Dexter and Asta Marie; and whomever else we may have forgotten. "Next year" starts at 8pm tonight!!

Jake and Just Harry