Boy, has it been awhile since my mom has let me post on my own blog!  But she's been busy and just hasn't taken much time to stop and smell the roses. - or in this case the Christmas Cactus that is blooming right now. I think the cactus is a little confused too since it didn't put out at Christmas time. But here it is May and wow, it's a beauty!
     Since I posted last my dad has had three back surgeries and been really sick but his body is working now, not more breaks since December 28 and he is even driving a car again. Caesar and I spent a lot of time on the bed with him when he was so down and we looked after my mom too. Sometimes you have to do double duty as a dog.
    Then this spring we spent several days at our ranch on the John Day river. We sniffed out rabbits and ran over the birdbeak wildflowers and had a grand time. My mom had scrappers and workers and volunteers and relatives and friends and neighbors helping sort out stuff for the auction and what my dad said he wanted brought to our home in Bend. So we have a horse trailer full of "stuff" and a used U-Haul full of "stuff" and a flatbed trailer full of "stuff" that my dad says will all fit inside a new shop and garage he wants to build. My mom says it better fit!  And she hopes it'll be in there before the neighbors start to complain about all the "stuff" in our yard.
    Meanwhile a new dog will be running over the hills and beside the river as my parents sold the ranch. My mom says it was the right thing to do and my dad agrees I think but we will all miss it. The new dog's name is Ole and he and Caesar and me all got along fine on a day they visited. I left him one of my toys and a bin for his food.  I sure hope he enjoys it as much as I did. He has two boys to run around with him there and a pretty nice mom and dad, too.
     My mom has three new books out since I posted last but best of all is that she is finally taking a little time after caring for my dad and getting the ranch ready to sell to notice flowers blooming, even if it's Christmas cactus in May.  I hope you take time to notice things too. That's the best way to get through a hard time and celebrate what you already have.  Woof! Woof!  Bo

Missing my Pal

  

I've never had a pal like PurrBall (PB) before. When we lived on the ranch, PB stayed outside in a really nice house that my dad's kids built for him out of an old stereo speaker. They insulated it and roofed it and PB loved it though he'd sneak in as often as he could to hang out inside the house when I was there. But mostly he'd do what he's doing in this picture which is climb up onto my back and sleep. 

     When we left the ranch, my parents decided to have him, uh, neutered and then to let him become an indoor cat. He still had his outdoor house but now he also had a bed inside and a litter box and his special dish that sat on the piano so neither Caesar nor I could get into it. Gosh, we had a good time.  Lots of times he slept in my bed with me.

     About three weeks ago, he didn't come inside one evening. No one thought much of it. It's summer and he has a bed outside, too. But he wasn't there in the morning wanting to get in. He wasn't there in the evening either. Finally, after a couple of days my mom put his picture up around the neighborhood. She asked the neighbors and even met a neighbor she hadn't met before to tell him about PB. She visited humane societies in two towns (we live between them) and hung up posters and put a notice on Craig's list, too. She got a call from Craig's list but the cat the lady found had clipped ears and as you can see, PB's ears are the way they were when he was born, only bigger.

      I miss him.  I sniff the door to his house each time I go in or out. My mom says the scent of something evokes memories (whatever evokes means). I just know that when I sniff there I wish him home. Some have said maybe he just went away to die but he wasn't sick. I would have noticed. There are coyotes around and owls too. Someone else said maybe he traveled the 160 miles back to our ranch but I'm here!  He wouldn't have gone all that way knowing the people and friends who loved him are waiting for him here.  Maybe he wanted an adventure and he'll be back one day. My mom hasn't moved his food bowl off of the piano yet and she hasn't put away his kitty litter box either though she may as well. Without PB there's nothing interesting in that box anyway. My mom says there's an old proverb that says the last thing lost is hope. I'm hoping.

     So the only thing I'd like to say is that if you have a friend you sometimes take for granted, don't. I just wish I could have one more day with my pal; one more day to let him sleep on my back, knead my side, sleep beside me. All I have now is a tiny little scent when I walk by his house. I don't know what RIP means on stones in those green places my mom calls cemeteries (I've gone with her to a couple), but for me it means Remembering is Painful. My mom says that in time, my memories of my friend will nourish and transform. I hope so. I hope they will for you too if you've lost a pal like PB. Until next time when I'm in a happier mood...

    Woof!  Woof!   Bo

Happy Birthday to Me!

My mom has not allowed me at the computer for months!  But today is my birthday and she couldn't keep me away.  I'm six years old which of course is 42 in dog years. Still living at home....  Anyway, she bought me this "thing."  It looks like a soft pretzel but it's really hard.  I'm considering what to do with it in this top picture.

 
Here you can see I've decided it's worth chewing. It's made in Oregon whatever it is...some kind of rawhide I guess. My mom's friend said to always look for chew toys made in America, something about testing etc. So my mom got me this and a couple of bones. Gee, I live a great life even though, at 42, I shouldn't be living in the bedroom of my mom's house; but here I am.  Ceasar lives here too so it's not like I'm the only freeloader.  And she says we bring her great joy.
   She's been sick for three months coughing and hacking and trying all sorts of remedies. I'm hoping she'll be well soon because she's almost too tired to take me for walks. But at night when she says "Time for bed!" and all the lights go out and we follow her and my dad into the bedroom, she lets me jump up on the bed if only for a minute.  She nuzzles my face and scratches the side of my nose - a place that's hard for me scratch - and tells me how happy she is that I'm in her world. If she only knew...I feel the same about her.
    Hope your birthdays are happy times...thanks for stopping by.  Woof!  Woof!  Bo.

Blanket Bridge

New things happening at our house!  Remember when I told you about the zappy wire thing my mom put around the back 40 as she calls it.  It had little white flags to show us where to stay to avoid the zapping ping.  The white flags are almost all gone now but Caesar and I know that the "painful ping" is still there if we get too close.

For the past many months, when my mom wanted to go for a walk with us off the back forty, she put us in the car, backed the car out and then we jumped out to go for a walk with her.  It was how we avoided the zapping pinging thing. When we came back, we popped back into the car then back into the garage.  She was so careful to make sure we didn't get pinged.

"What happens if the car won't start?" we heard her ask my dad one day.  "Or if it snows and we can't back out?  How will I take them for a walk down the road?"

My mom and dad asked around.  A friend said maybe put us in a little red wagon and pull us across.  Another friend suggested putting a hood over our heads.  I mean, please, a hood?

Then yesterday a neighbor said to put a blanket down and make up a command so we wouldn't be afraid.  My mom selected "Safe!"  She put a red blanket down, said "Safe" and then pulled us onto it.  We didn't get pinged!  And we had the best walk ever!  When we came back I was a little hesitant but she said "Safe!" again and I stepped right on it.  Wow!  How cool!

I still don't know for sure what makes that blanket (that is sometimes on the bed so when we're dirty our feet get it dirty rather than the comforter) "safe."  Maybe it has something to do with those collars we wear when we're in the back 40 but that mom takes off of us when we go for walks over the safe bridge.  You think?

We're getting ready for Christmas too!  Hope you are!  Have a happy one.  Bo, Woof, Woof

Caesar's birthday

It's Caesar's birthday today!  Here he is trying to keep my mom from working.  It seems the only way to get her to close a book when she's researching is to cover it with our bodies.  As soon as Caesar wakes up we're going to have a party.  What a treat.  I personally like hooves but Caesar likes bully sticks.  Whatever, I bet there'll be toys and special food too.  I hope you celebrate your birthdays. Caesar is three in human years but 21 in dog years.  He could be on his own now but why would he leave the warm confines of Casa Court and my mom and dad's hugs.  Hope you all have a great day and pray that I won't eat too much ice cream!  Woolf Woolf!  Bo

Fall Foliage

     It's fall in Central Oregon and we headed over the mountain for one of my mom's book signings.  On the way back my mom made my dad stop so we could take pictures of the fall colors.  My mom says it may not be Vermont but it's all we've got and she thinks it's pretty cool.  Here's Caesar taking in the view. He had two baths yesterday:  one because he'd visited a sheep barn and rolled in the old sheep doo-doo and the second when he found raccoon poo and rolled in it.  I couldn't find either one of them!  Dang!

    We'd spent the night at Simon's house in Salem, that's Caesar's brother. They have a birthday next week.  I wonder if my mom will have a party.  Caesar will be three!  He has so much yet to learn!

     Then there's PB who has taken an interest in Yoga maybe because he doesn't get to travel with us.  I think he calls this one "Downward Dog" or something like that.  My mom noted there are 13 yoga studios in Central Oregon and maybe she should look into that as a relaxing form of exercise especially since her episode in the hospital with ulcers.  I have no idea what ulcers are but we were home alone with dad for four whole days while she was tending to them. When my dad took us into the hospital to visit her, we couldn't find them anywhere so I'm not sure how they held her hostage there, but they did.

      I hope your fall is going well and full of lots of foliage. Maybe you could send us pictures my mom could put up on Facebook...or maybe here if she can figure out how to do it.  Meanwhile, Don't let your downward dog get you down and don't let ulcers hold you hostage.  Enjoy the fall foliage instead.  Woolf!  Woolf!  Bo

The Writers' LIfe is the Dog's Life too

This is what a writer's life is really like:  boxes in the back of the car, a cart to haul them while me and Ceasar wait.  Caesar's sleeping next to me.  Then my mom speaks, she makes people laugh, then signs books and my dad loads stuff back into the car and we drive three hours or more home.  My mom blogged about why she drives so far to meet readers.  You might like the post though she didn't even mention me.http://stephaniebarko.com/2011/08/15/jane-kirkpatrick  Still I'd rather go with them than stay at home.


Except this last time when my mom and dad flew to Minnesota.  They left us with Alena.  She smells so good!  She wears jeans and spurs and works with horses and dogs all day and has a business looking after people's animals when they travel.  She fed PB and us and watered plants and it was cool. We all like her a lot.


We haven't been able to run in the back forty much because of all the cheat grass.  Caesar's visited the vet three times in one week to get those little weeds out of his ears. Now my mom puts cotton in our ears and we can play for about an hour and then she pulls us into the yard.  It's a nice yard, though.  My mom gave in, she said, and called the landscaper to clean out the big grass and weeds that we were hiding in a lot.  Here's a picture of it after being cleaned out. The stones were made by her friends on the reservation.

My mom said she felt ten pounds lighter after the landscapers came.  I don't know why.  She ISN'T ten pounds lighter.  Maybe if she'd pulled all those weeds she would be...but I digress.  The landscapers also put stuff in the pond to kill the algae but it's safe so when I jump the gate before my mom catches me and plunge into the pond, I won't get sick.

See the truck in the background?  If you have any ideas about how to get rid of a pack rat living under the hood let me know.  I've done my best to bark up under the truck but when we lift the hood only his nest is there.  We need help!

I hope you have a good summer.  Ours has been new and different but we're happy, even when we have to wait in the car.  Woof!  Woof!  Bo