What’s Going On?

Something fishy is going on around here.  Hallie has been running around the house telling everyone to bring their clothes to her room.  They bring their stuff to her and then she says – “what about your bathing suit, what about PJ’s?”  Then she put everyone’s clothes into these big boxes that zip up.  I hung out in her room all night and she did not ask me once to bring her one of my loofas or my leash.  She didn’t put anything of mine into the big boxes.

Earlier this week, a young guy with long hair came by and Hallie showed him all around our house, with a special emphasis on my leash and walking me.  She also showed him where my food is and where Peepers’ food is.  Then Jorge, our neighbor came by and she gave him a key.  He’s that nice guy, that walked me the 4 days that the family was away visiting the red hair lady and the bald guy.  He is very comforting.

“Hey wait a minute, – is the family going away again?”  Last night while everyone was a sleep I looked at the papers on the table.  There were passports (one for everyone and none for me) and airline tickets to Spain and information about a mediterranean cruise.  What?  They know I don’t like cruising.  I guess that is why Jorge and the long haired guy will be staying with me.  Bon Voyage!

Misbehaving

I read with great interest the story that appeared in yesterday’s New York Times regarding the Governor of New York’s dog.  Apparently, this little maltese, Cheerio, has bitten several visitors to the Governor’s mansion.  A word to the wise my little friend, “do not bite guests to your home, especially if it is a mansion.”

As you know, I am a barker.  I bark when people come to the door, whenever the doorbell rings and when dogs walk by our house.  I can tell that this behavior is very annoying, especially to My G and Lil Joe.  However, I draw the line at biting people.  This just cannot be tolerated.  Cheerio should know that some dogs get sent to the doggie farm when they bite people and they don’t come back.  Luckily for Cheerio, his family is going to bring in a dog trainer.  Hopefully he will learn to behave better.

It’s just hard to believe that this  dog got a huge article in the New York Times for misbehaving.  Too bad that there aren’t more stories about the sweet  and kind dogs and all the good that they do.  I know, I know, those kind of stories just don’t make the news.  I just hope that Bo, President Obama’s dog, sees this as a warning.  Any dog that is in the public spotlight because of their human, can easily find themselves top story in any supermarket tabloid – even the New York Times.

10,000 Steps

At the urging of Hallie’s good friend with the red-hair, Hallie bought a pedomter.   She wants to walk 10,000 steps every day.  Apparently that is the suggested amount of steps that all humans should take every day. Well, of course, I’m proud of Hallie that she cares so much about her health. Unfortunately for me, she takes at least 5,000 of these steps with me.   For instance, this past weekend, every time that I would settle down in one of my many comfy spots all over the house, there was Hallie yelling, “Miles, let’s go for a walk.”  She knows that I can’t resist that.  But I must admit, by Sunday night I was pooped.  I had barely any energy to bark and scrape the window sill as I watched people and dogs go by our house.  Maybe it’s true what they say that a “good dog is a tired dog?”  B’s friend, the Cantor, just came over and he asked, “has Miles lost weight?”  It’s not like I am fat or anything, but maybe I do have a little more “skootch” in my rear.  I may be willing to walk 5,000 steps a day, but I just heard that the red hair lady told Hallie that active people should really walk 13,000 steps a day.  That would mean 6,500 steps just for me.  I’ll do it because I just love being near my Hallie.

Shout Out To Esther and Border Collies

Hallie has this very good friend, Esther, who she met when My G started kindergarten.  My G was in the same class as Esther’s son.  Esther and Hallie have been friends ever since.  Esther loves all dogs, but she especially loves border collies.  When they first met, Esther and her family, but mostly Esther, had a really nice dog named, Tess.  In those days, Hallie was still afraid of dogs and Esther and Tess were very understanding of her fear.  One time Esther even picked up some dog poop outside of our house because Hallie thought it was too gross to do it herself. Tess passed a few years ago.  Esther immediately adopted a new border collie, Annie.  She is a good dog mother – very patient, loving and understanding.  Annie was from a border collie rescue and like me, she is one lucky dog.

More recently Esther fostered another border collie through the rescue named Gracie.  She welcomed Gracie into her home and helped her get use to other dogs and to people.  Another family now has Gracie.  It’s good that there are people out there like Esther.  All too often, dogs are mistreated by humans and it’s important that we acknowledge heroes like Esther when they are in our midst.