Greece, Cats and Dogs

cats leaving the Dutch restaurant on Crete so my mom and dad can sit down and eat

dog resting on marble in Athens....what a cool place to get a belly scratch

 There you have it!  I haven't blogged for a month because my parents were in Greece and what do they bring back?  A photograph of a dog and cats!
      The dog is alive.  My parents are eating at an outdoor restaurant and this dog greets everyone walking down the street by rolling over and asking for a belly rub.  I didn't ask my mom if she rubbed his belly...I mean, that would be disloyal if she did, wouldn't it?  He looks pretty happy and I bet that marble was really cool.
     I was sure happy when they got home.  Caesar stayed with his brother while they were gone and I stayed with Matt and Melissa and their three dogs, Rex, Toby and Charlie. They're real good to me but being home is just better.
    Now about the cat picture.  My mom took lots of cat pictures because cats were everywhere on Crete, an island in the Aegean Sea where they spent a week in a little village.  They liked the restaurant owned by a Dutch family and these are the chairs outside where the cats have full control.  I guess there are "Cat Cafes" around the village where the cats are fed.  Visitors to Crete are asked to please not feed the cats so they'll always go to their own cat cafe.  That way, local people collect them if they're sick and take them to a vet and they have them neutered.  (Been there, done that!)  Cats lounge in window sills, sleep on chairs and my mom said every morning when they got up, there'd be a cat looking in the window at them.
     I picked this picture hoping you can see the cat under the chair AND the one leaving the other chair.  What a great place to visit, really, with cats and dogs all around. Plus my parents must have done a lot of eating because most of the photographs are of cats in restaurants!  You can see yet another shot if you subscribe to my mom's Story Sparks newsletter (see www.jkbooks.com) and pictures of Greece too on her words of encouragement blog on her website.
     PB, my yellow tabby buddy who sleeps on my back when I rest on the deck, missed mom and dad too but at least I could play with him when we stayed at the ranch.  Otherwise, I was in Wasco where Matt and Melissa live. They have a nice place but no fenced in yard so I have to go out on a leash when I'm there. Vacations are nice for some people but they're not too cool for me.  I like my family close at hand.  So glad they're back!  Hope your family is only a lap away.  Woof!  Woof!  Bo

Friends and vacations

Well here are two of my pals that I've never met.  They're like "pen" pals only their pens are crates they might sleep in at night.  Here's the thing:  they're the buddies of friends of my mom.  Barkley, on the left, lives in Wisconsin and Bart, on the right, lives in Washington state.  Don't you love their eyes?  I mean, a dog can tell by the eyes if the dog they meet and sniff will be a friend or foe.  Both of these would be friends.  We were all going to meet this fall along with Coco from Canada (I'm hoping for a photograph of her soon!) when people took some vacation time...well, maybe I was only going to get to meet the people and not their buddies.  But plans change.  That happens in a dog's world too and you just have to be flexible or as my mom would say, "you have to be able to change directions quickly without a lot of friction"  just like a coping saw.

My parents are taking another vacation!  They're off to Greece for three weeks with out either me or Caesar!!!!  I supposed they'll bring back some silly dog thing, a toy the shape of the Acropolis or Delphi or something when all I really want is them back.  But they deserve a good vacation too.  It's celebrating my dad's 80th birthday.  I hope he has lots more years to play with me.  Caesar will visit his brothers in Salem and I'll be here with my pals Toby, Charley and Rex.  They like being able to crawl all over me...but they have to push PB, the cat, off my back to get on top.  And they do!

I hope you play hard, eat well and sleep often.  Maybe that's what I hope for my parents on their vacation, too.  Be well.  Woof!  Woof!  Bo

My Dad's photograph and My latest dog connections

  My dad won a blue ribbon at the Sherman County Fair.  No, it wasn't a picture of me.  Here it is.  My mom used it in her Story Sparks newsletter (you can sign up at www.jkbooks.com) too but that was before we knew it had won the blue ribbon.  My dad's a modest guy and didn't want my mom to bother entering it.  But see, it's a perfect shot with those clouds and the harvested wheat field and windmills.  The area in the front is called a scab patch.  It can't be farmed but let me tell you, it harbors great things like pheasants and little lizards and mice and all kinds of intriguing things.
    My mom left me at home for a week with my dad while she had book signings and events on the Oregon Coast.  That was kind of hard, to see her drive off with Caesar and not me.  But my dad's back was hurting him so I kept him company at home.

    One of the places my mom stayed on the coast was near Tillamook on the Trask River.  One of the first books my mom read when she knew she was moving to Oregon from Wisconsin umpteen years ago was a historical novel called Trask.  So she thought it was fun to see where that story was set.  She stayed with a writer and artist friend who had two dogs, too. Molly and Hobi.  My mom thought Hobi was a great name as she had already had a dog in her work in progress (that what she calls a book she's writing) named Hobi but she spelled it Ho-Bee instead.  Here's Hobi's picture.  Maybe one day I'll get to meet her.  Molly wasn't interest in a portrait shot. Both dogs are rescue dogs which I think is a wonderful thing.  Not that they had to BE rescued but that there are people willing to be kind and patient and let the bad things that happened to them go away.  My mom says memories aren't meant to hold us hostage but to transform us in the present.  I like that and I'm real glad she knows people who take in rescue dogs.  Maybe one day she'll take on in, too.
       And how can I forget to introduce you to Jasmine.  She's a Samoyed who belongs to my mom and dad's faux niece and nephew.  They call them faux because they're not really their niece and nephew but Cindi's mom and dad are like my dad's brother and sister-in-law and Carol is one of my mom's best friends.  Cindi and Joe live in Redmond.  It's hard to believe, but I outweigh Jasmine by about 30 pounds.  She's all hair!  But like me, she easily accommodates, and is submissive.  Who needs a fight?  No shots of me in this one but Caesar is looking good!  You can just see the edge of Joe in the corner.  They're good guys and I loved the chipmunks in their yard!  Jasmine has to be "furminated" every now and then because she has so much hair and and Cindi says the groomer comes out wearing goggles and coveralls, like something from ET because of all that wonderful hair.  I don't shed but Caesar does.  It's good that we're all different, isn't it?

    
     That's my latest dog update.  Remember, it's a dog's world, really.  Life is good.  I hope yours is too.  Woof!  Woof!

Poetry, a pinch of God

     My mom read an article in the Eugene Register Guard the other day and it included a poem by Alicia Suskin Ostriker, a poet from New Jersey.  How someone from the east coast can capture my life in the West is just one miracle of literature, I guess.  She wrote a poem that includes a dog's point of view.  The poem, The Blessing of the Old Woman, the Tulip, and the Dog made my mom smile.  Here's the part she said made her think of me:

    "To be blessed
    said the dog
    is to have a  pinch
    of God
    inside you
    and all the other
    dogs can smell it"

.

  See, we were given these great noses...I think mine is rather attractive, don't you?  We sniff history with our noses and check other dogs out and assess everything:  "Can I eat it?  Will it hurt me?"  The two big questions of life.
    Anyway, I sniffed out a problem in the yard the other day.  I had all three little dogs in my life hanging around, running up and down the yard, barking and laughing  (that's Caesar, Charlie and Toby) when I realized the danger.  Not far from where I'm laying in this picture, I smelled then heard then saw the rattlesnake, all coiled and ready to strike.
      Well, I knew enough not to try to jab at it, not to get to close.  I barked but it didn't slink away.  It stayed to mark its territory I guess but not in my back yard!!!   I started to bark my steady, warning, get-your-butt-out-here-now!- sort of bark.  And before long, Matt, my brother, came out with the pistol and took care of the snake.  The little dogs all danced around me, happy, happy and Matt and his wife Melissa gave me lots of pats and hugs for being the guardian dog that I am.  I knew they'd tell my mom and dad when they got home and they gave me even more hugs and pats.  I had a pinch of God in side me that day and all the other little dogs could smell it!
    I hope you have a pinch of God in your day too!  Keep sniffing!  Woolf!  Woolf!  Bo

Humming birds and Bat man

Look close.  That' a hummingbird being held by my cousin Norm as he's known to his friends.  He's in Minnesota and his family has a greenhouse.  This hummingbird flew into it when the door was open and got caught in a spider web.  Norm and his mom helped him out and he was a bit dazed but before long he headed off into the Minnesota summer.  Kinda of a cute photograph don't you think?  That big bat man shadow behind him makes him look like he's being protected.  Norm is interested in law enforcement so being protective is something fitting for him too.
     Norm has three dogs when he comes home to visit his family.  Hairy, Josa and Gertie.  His family are Packer fans though they live in Minnesota.  Last year with all the hoopla about Bret Favre becoming a Viking, they taught Josa a trick.  They'd say, "Would you rather be a dead or a Viking?" and Josa would roll over and play dead!
     I don't know any tricks at all.  Oh, I can tug on a toy with Caesar at the other end.  Not much of a trick in that.  I can carry around the green garden pitcher that is now mine because of the holes I chewed in the spout.  When my mom waters the plants with the new watering can she lets me drink from the spout.  I like that but it isn't much of a trick.
    My most favorite thing to do though is play in the river.  I jump in there four, five, six times a day when it's 105 degrees here as it was last week.  Oh, and this week, before the cows got here, I jumped in their watering trough.  I guess that's a trick getting in and out of it.  We long-haired dogs in hot weather need water to relax in.  I bet those of you with swimming pools know just what I mean!
    Anyway, I hope you're staying cool this summer.  Don't get caught in any spider webs unless you've got a big friend to help you out.  Woof!  Woof!

Friends and rattlesnakes

  Here's my friend Hershey.  He lives in Wisconsin so we're really just computer pals.  We haven't actually met but you don't have to sniff someone to know whether they're your friends or not.  Association works and Hershey is associated with the Kralls who are long time friends of my mom and dad.  They live in Northern Wisconsin and Hershey's dad likes to hunt like my dad does.  Hersh doesn't do it much anymore.  I don't either. You can see by his white whiskers that he's older than me.  That white circle in the middle of his head...that's the flash from the camera but hey, it looks sort of cool with his white eyebrows.
    I had an adventure yesterday I didn't even know about until after it was over.  I helped my Dad and Matt put a suction line into the river (it's been in flood stage and the usual suction line wasn't available so they had to adapt).  All of a sudden my dad says, "Whoa!"  And Matt picks up a shovel and just like that he's holding a three foot long rattlesnake that had crawled right underneath me.  I guess he was looking for shade and my hairy belly provided it.
        Today my mom and dad will take Caesar to the vet.  He got something in his ear and he's acting crazy.  He crawled into the closet where my mom's shoes are (a dog could get lost in there and not come out for weeks if he had a mind to chew!) and hid there until she found him. Tthen he squealed when she picked him up and touched his ear.  So off they'll  go.  I sure hope it isn't anything too serious.  I have lots of ear problems myself and had a cheat grass break my eardrum when I was only eight weeks old.  (My mom thinks that's why I don't always come when she calls me but hey, sometimes a dog just wants to do what a dog wants to do).
   Have a good day and don't forget to tell your friends howdy.
Woof!  Woof!  Bo

Bo in Aurora

  My mom has kept me from the keyboard for months!  She's been working on her latest novel, The Daughter's Walk, and when she's not doing that, she's traveling promoting her current projects.  Lately, Caesar and I have gotten to go along.  Saturday, the day before my fourth birthday, we went to Aurora.  I love that little town.  My mom does too.  Here's a shot of us all, at the Community  cemetery in Aurora south of Portland, Oregon.

   I know, you may not like cemeteries but all that grass is cool!  And the stones....well, my mom wouldn't let me well, do my thing on the stones or trees but I did get to walk around the grassy areas.  Emma Giesy, a woman my mom wrote about in her Change and Cherish series  is buried there and visiting her grave was part of the program at Aurora.  So here we are!
    Once she finishes her revisions, I'll get back on here more and write about spring and summer on the Homestead.  Meanwhile, that's me leaning into my dad.  It's a good, good day to be a dog.  Woof!  Woof!  Bodacious Bo