Confessions of a Canine Cyber-Widow

Human FAQ

2011-03-07T19:12:00.003-05:00

What I want to know is this: Why do humans ask questions when they don't care to know what the answer its?

For instance: Tonight Laura was cooking something in the kitchen, and it smelled very good, so I decided to go and see what was up.

Laura saw me and she said, "Princess Kendal, how's it going?"

I told her it would be going a whole lot better if she would share what she was cooking with me. But Laura just smiled and turned back to her pan and didn't give me any!

Then there are all the times that I go to Laura to tell her that it's dinner time. I stand right in front of her and give her my very best "it's dinnertime" look.

But humans have trouble with looks. Laura doesn't always understand what I mean. Still, she recognizes that I want something. So she says, "Princess Kendal, what can I do for you?"

And I tell her very clearly, "You could get me my dinner."

I don't just rely on The Look. And neither do I rely on telepathy. (Humans have trouble with that sometimes too.) No, I am very clear. I explain myself using full body language and the proper choreography and everything. I know that Laura understands my answer.

Still, she just smiles and says, "You're cute, Princess Kendal. Cheeky, but cute." And then she goes on about her business like we never had the conversation at all!

Laura's pretty smart for a human, so I don't think it's a lack of understanding. It's more of a willful oblivion. But why ask the question at all if you're not going to respond appropriately to the answer?

When It's Good to Let Them See You Sweat

2011-03-03T14:25:00.003-05:00

Hi everybody!

The weather has been up and down again here, which has made my snow all icy again. Now the snow has such a hard icy crust on top of it, I don't even sink into the deepest snow. I cannot roll around in it or rub my face in it. I'm even afraid to rub my belly on it, because it is so slippery: what if I couldn't stand up again? Still, I have to go out in the yard every day to make sure it is okay. What is a Princess to do?

My brother Ashton, when he was alive, told me never to show any weakness. Don't let them know that you're afraid. Ashton was pretty smart. He had some good ideas. But I don't think he was always right about this one.

For example, many of you know how much I love to play towel games. Well, lately Laura has been very busy, so we don't always get to play towel games, even when I've really been outside. We still play every night at bedtime, though.

Usually at the end of the day I am very tired. (It is hard work being a Princess.) And usually I am already in bed long before Laura decides that it is bed time. And then she wants me to get up to go outside with her before she goes to bed! I always make sure to let her know what an imposition this is. Then Laura says:

"Come on, Princess Kendal. Come outside with me one last time. Then we can play towel games!"

See how that works? If I am too eager to go outside, Laura thinks I will be happy to just go outside and then come back in again and let her go right back to her computer without playing towel games first. But if I make like I don't want to go outside, then Laura will promise me towel games as an incentive to get me to go!

So this morning, when we went outside and it was all icy, I made sure to let Laura know just how nervous I was about slip-sliding away on top of all of that scary ice. And Laura said:

"Come on, Princess Kendal. You can do it. Be a brave girl for Laura. Then we can play towel games!"

And I got Laura to play towel games with me at six o'clock in the morning!

They're Back!

2011-02-21T17:50:00.002-05:00

Even though I was sad and lonely on Friday night, I stayed in Laura's and my room all night and did a good job guarding it so that it would be safe when Laura got back home. And when I woke up from my morning nap on Saturday, there was Laura sitting right beside me!

I was faithful to my snow too. Even when there was only a tiny patch of it left in our yard, I went outside and played with it and told it that I loved it. And my faith was rewarded! It finally turned cold again Friday night, and the snow stopped melting. And Saturday afternoon when Laura and I went out to play, look at what we found:

All of my beautiful snow came back!

Weeeee!

Life is good.

All Alone

2011-02-18T22:01:00.002-05:00

Everyone has left me.

All my beautiful snow is melting away. My snow that I worked so hard to make sure it knew I appreciated it.

Even when it turned icy and hard, when it was scary to walk on and my toes fell through into sharp holes that hurt my little paw pads, I still went out every day to play with the snow.

Even when it turned wet and slushy, I let it know how much I loved it.

Slushy snow is fun to play in too, and it shouldn't be left out just because it is a little wet.

But it didn't do any good. All of my beautiful snow is leaving me anyway.

Even Laura has left me. I moved my bed from my special, safe spot under the kitchen table to be in her room so I could help her with her writing, and she still went away.

"I'll be back soon, Princess Kendal," she always says to me. "Don't be sad."

But when is soon? It's bed time already and she's not here! And why does she have to leave me at all? She's always saying how wonderful and good I am.

Please come back! Snow? Laura? I'm here. I'm waiting.

House Hunting

2011-02-12T19:13:00.002-05:00

I had to help Laura look for a new house this week. Not for us though--thankfully. We have moved house enough! Nope. I have my bed in a nice safe corner here, and I can keep an eye on Laura when she is working, and I only have to go right outside our back door to play in my nice, big yard. I like this house that we have already just fine. But we don't want it to get too crowded. There are already three humans living here and one Princess, and that is enough. So when a little mouse tried to move in with us earlier this week we said, "Sorry. That is not going to happen."

Lots of mice are attracted to our house, especially in the winter time, because it is warm and we have peanut butter cookies. Laura says it is good to share the peanut butter with them, because we have lots of food, but she doesn't think we should share our beds. So she puts some peanut butter in a little box and puts the box under the sink, and then all the mice that come to visit us go in there.

At first I thought the little box would be the new home for our house mice. The mice are very small, and the box has peanut butter in it, and a big sky light. I like to watch the mice play through their sky light. They are cute and they smell interesting.

Laura said watching the mice made them nervous, however, and we needed the box back to put fresh peanut butter in it for the next mice who come to visit us. So Laura and I take the mice into the yard to help them find a new home.

I thought the wood pile on the back wall of the house might be a good spot. It is warm in there, and it has lots of fun places in which a little mouse could play hide and seek. Plus, I go by that wood pile every day, so I could keep an eye out for those mice. (Not to scare them. Just to make sure that they are okay.)

Laura wasn't convinced though. She said that once mice find out you have peanut butter they can get lazy. She said if we left the mice in the wood pile by the house they might not bother to build a nest there; they'd just sneak back into our house and make another play for ours!

That seemed pretty cheeky to me, but I guess mice can be cheeky. Laura would know better than me as she has more experience with them. She had a bunch of mice try to share her office with her one time. They would camp out under her desk while she was sitting at it, and when she left the room, they sometimes climbed on top of her desk, danced on her keyboard, and left little love notes for her on her computer.

Those mice made a nest for themselves inside one of the computers. The computer didn't like that very much so it went on strike. And its manufacturer said, "Sorry. Damage caused by rodent piss on the motherboard is not covered in the warranty."

So, anyway... no mouse hotel in the big wood pile. Instead, we took that little mouse down to the brush pile by the shed. I cannot see inside the brush pile very well in the winter because it is covered in snow, but Laura said it should make a fine home for our little visitors and hopefully it would be easier for them to build a nest in the brush pile than find their way all the way back to our peanut butter. Me, I'm not so sure. Our peanut butter is very yummy, and--I love Laura, but let's face it: she doesn't have a very good track record with convincing small animals to stay away from her. But--so long as I don't have to move house again or give up my bed--I'm willing to try Laura's plan for now.

Snow Princess

2011-02-05T14:07:00.002-05:00

I love the winter time.

It is so much fun to play in the snow.

Especially when there is lots and lots of it, and you can bury your whole face in it.

Snow feels so soft and cool on your face.

But not everybody loves snow. When I look around, I see people griping and complaining about it.

That makes me sad. If people were always saying mean things about me like they say about snow, I would be sad and run away. I don't want my snow to run away! So everyday I make sure to tell it how much I love it with a big hug.

And a kiss.

A french kiss!

(Tee hee!)

I was worried back in December because our snow was so shy about coming out to play. We would have just the barest whisper come and visit us, and then it would run away again. But I made sure to run all over the yard every day and tell that snow how much I love it. And it worked! Now lots and lots of snow has come to play with me and we frolic and have fun every day!

If you have snow visiting you where you live, I hope you remember to appreciate it and to have fun!

Yoga Assistant

2011-01-24T12:57:00.003-05:00

Some of you know that my friend Laura likes to do yoga. She does yoga a lot, but there is not enough space to do it in our room, so she does it in the living room. Which means I have to get off my nice comfy bed and go into another room where my only bed is a folded-up towel.

Now, you all know that I like to be helpful, and I especially like helping my friend Laura. But I am having a hard time figuring out how I can help her with her yoga.

At first I thought I could help Laura do her balance poses. Those poses look pretty difficult, if you ask me. Laura has to twist her whole body up into these crazy pretzel shapes and do it all while standing on only one leg! So I figured I would stand beside her during balances, so she could lean on me.

Laura didn't get the hint, however. She kept trying to balance on her own, without my help. So I stood closer, right up against her leg, so she couldn't fail to notice that I was there for her.

Then Laura fell over.

She said, "Princess Kendal, I love you, but you're not being very helpful."

Okay. So she doesn't want help with balancing. But maybe I could help by keeping her company while she does her sun salutations.

That didn't turn out to be such a great idea, though. Laura moves around a lot during sun salutations, and sometimes she would kick me.

I don't like being kicked, so I decided to stay out of Laura's way until she gets to the lying-down poses.

Laura does these abdominal-strengthening poses right in the middle of her workout which look really hard. Sometimes she does this funny, heavy breathing with them, and sometimes she screws her face up in concentration.

Those poses look pretty intense and not much fun at all. And it's important to have fun. So I decided to tickle Laura to make her laugh.

I tickled her right in her arm pits.

And Laura did laugh.

But she said I wasn't being very helpful.

*SIGH*

What is a Princess to do? I really, really wanted to help, but Laura wasn't leaving me with any options. Then I hit upon the perfect thing!

Laura is very busy. She has a lot of stuff that she has to get done every day. And all of that stuff takes time. (Some days Laura doesn't even have time to come outside and play with me because she is so busy!) One of the things that Laura does that takes time is her yoga. Another thing is that, after she does yoga, she has to have a bath.

Well, clearly Laura doesn't want me to help her with her balance work, and she doesn't want me to help her with her abdominal work, and it's too dangerous to help her with her sun salutations. But at the end of every workout, Laura lies down on her yoga mat for almost ten minutes. She just lies there, quiet and still, not doing anything.

It seemed to me that that time could be put to better use. So I figured I could help Laura by giving her a bath while she is meditating. Then she wouldn't need to have a bath afterwards, so I would be helping by saving her a lot of time.

I tried to give Laura a very good bath. I licked her arms and her legs and her fingers and her toes. I tried to lick off all the salt and make sure she was nice and clean by the time she was done meditating. But after she had rolled up her mat, Laura still went and had another bath!

I just don't know what else I can do?

Back Again

2011-01-19T11:13:00.002-05:00

Hi everybody!

Yes, it's me, Princess Kendal. Back like a bad penny, I guess you could say--except that I'm good and priceless and everybody is always happy to see me! Anyhow... I know it's been a long, long time since I have written to you all. I would blame Laura and say that she has been hogging the computer all year (and then, when she was not on the computer, she was outside gardening and so not available to help me), but Princess's should take responsibility for their own behaviour. So I am sorry for the long absence and I promise to try harder to persuade Laura to help me with my blog this year.

So, what is new since the last time I wrote to you? Lots of things! For instance: last Sunday I became thirteen years old! Laura says thirteen is a very good age for a princess, and I agree with her. Now that I am thirteen, Laura has to give me more food, because my investigations in the yard have become very involved and I have been burning more calories doing all of that work. Plus, now that I am thirteen, my friends on Catherine Street gave me some special pink candies, and I get to eat one every Wednesday night. They are very yummy and they help me to have a nice sleep in a dry bed.

Speaking of beds: I had to change my day bed recently.

You know how much I love my special spot under the kitchen table, where I was keeping my own bed. That used to be a very good spot for helping Laura. But then she stopped working in the kitchen. She moved her computer into this other room. And how could I continue to protect her and supervise her writing if I couldn't even see her? So I have to use this big, poofy futon as my day bed now. Sometimes, when you are a princess, you have to make sacrifices for the sake of your subjects.

What else? Oh, yes! We had a big party on Saturday to celebrate my birthday. I was confused as to why everyone came on Saturday, when my birthday was on Sunday this year, but Laura said that was just the way it had to be. Sometimes humans are funny about these things. Anyhow, it was good to see some of my friends (even if none of them brought me cookies).

I will say goodbye for now, because Laura wants the computer back, and I need to go outside soon and make sure everything is in order in my yard. (We have a lot of rabbits out there this year, and you know how much trouble rabbits can get into.) I have lots more stories to tell you, though, so I will be sure to make sure Laura makes more time to help me work on my blog this year.

Bye for now!

Visiting

2010-01-22T18:35:00.003-05:00

Yesterday Laura and I went to visit our friends on Catherine Street.

I don't 100% like going to visit them because the people there are always poking and prodding me, and sometimes there are dogs there who are very rude and sniff at my bum! But it's a good place to get treats, so it's not all bad.

Yesterday, my friend Barb came out to see me as soon as I arrived. She didn't poke at me at all. She just wanted me to stand on this black platform. Then she gave me two treats because she likes me!

Then Laura and I went into the small room, and my friend Trevor came in to see me. He poked and prodded me all over, and then he stuck a needle in my bum! I didn't think that was very nice, but I didn't say anything because I am a brave princess. Anyhow, I think Trevor felt bad about the needle, because then he gave me a treat to apologize. And then, because I was so good, he gave me another one.

Then, after Trevor left, my friend Dana came in to visit me. She poked at my bum too. She kept poking and poking. I tried to sit down to make her stop, but Laura wouldn't let me. (Laura really wasn't very nice to me on that trip. She is supposed to be my best friend! She is supposed to protect my bum from other people and dogs!) Anyhow... when Dana was finally done poking at my bum, she gave me a treat. So I decided to forgive her. Then she gave me another treat because I am so cute!

So, all in all, six treats was not a bad visit. And afterwards, my bum really did feel better, so I decided to forgive Laura too (even though she didn't give me any treats!)

A Good Birthday

2010-01-17T09:39:00.002-05:00

I had a good birthday party yesterday. Many of my loyal subjects came to pay their respects.

Here you see two of my ladies in waiting, Claire and Kate, giving me a nice ear massage:

and here Kate is giving me a hand massage:

When you get to be twelve years old, your paws can start to hurt a lot, but it is still nice to have a massage when it is gentle.

So many people came to my birthday party that Laura was busy all day making food for them. She was so busy making the food for my guests that she didn't have a chance to bake my special birthday cookies until really late. I didn't get to eat one until one in the morning! That is pretty late for a princess to stay up, and my Mum said it technically wasn't even my birthday anymore, but I didn't mind because when you are a princess you have to look after your subjects, and I was happy that so many people came to see me and they were all well fed.

Even very good parties can be tiring for a twelve year old princess. I was happy to have a nap afterwards on my nice bed with my friend Claire.

Now We Are Twelve

2010-01-16T10:45:00.002-05:00

Happy birthday to me!
Happy birthday to me!
Happy twelfth birthday Princess Kendal!
Won't you please bring me treats?

New Bed

2009-11-15T17:09:00.000-05:00

It took a lot of hint-dropping before they got the message, but I finally convinced my humans to get me a proper bed for my new spot.

Home... Again

2009-10-04T14:44:00.003-04:00

Last week I moved house for the eighth time.

I actually moved a week ago Wednesday, and Laura came with me, but then she had to go back to our old house as she still had more moving to do. (It takes humans longer to move house than puppy dogs. I don't know why. It even takes Laura longer -- though she has moved house 44 times now. You'd think she would be faster at it by now, but she isn't.)

Laura was gone for three more days to finish moving. (Plus, I think she went to a party at that place where they don't allow puppy dogs.) I was sad when she went back to our old house without me, but I knew she would not be gone for long because all of our stuff was already in our new home.

I am glad that we left Guelph. My friends hardly ever came to visit me there, and that made me sad. Plus, my friend Janet (my best friend in Guelph) who used to live next door to us moved away at the end of July, and then we got new neighbours who were noisy. The new neighbours had loud parties that made our walls throb and they smoked on our front lawn and they never gave me any cookies. I didn't like them very much.

Now, where Laura and I are living, I have a big yard to go exploring in, and friends come to visit me every day. Life is much better here.

Fly Catching

2009-09-19T17:16:00.002-04:00

I learned something new today.

Those of you who know me know how much I like to be helpful. I especially like helping my friend Laura. Well, one of the things that I do to help Laura is that I catch flies for her. When Laura is working, I don't want those flies to bother her. They are not supposed to come in our house, so when they do, I catch them and I eat them. Well...

Today Laura was making me my dinner, and a big nasty fly came into our kitchen. I did not want that fly to bother Laura while she was getting my dinner ready, so I chased after it and I caught it... and it bit me back!

Flies are not supposed to do that. They just buzz around and annoy people until I catch them and eat them. But not this fly. This fly hurt my mouth so much I had to spit it out. There it lay on the kitchen floor on its back, kicking its feet in the air. Laughing at me.

Laura was really mad. She was so mad at that fly, she took one of my candy jars and she smashed it into the fly. She smashed it and she smashed it and she ground that fly into the linoleum so it wasn't laughing anymore and it could never bite me again. Then she scraped up that nasty fly and threw it in the garbage.

Note to self: Next time, leave the yellow and black striped flies for Laura to deal with.

Garden Guard

2009-07-22T16:25:00.002-04:00

This is a picture of me on guard duty. I am guarding our back patio garden from rodent invaders.

Last night while I was sleeping, a dastardly squirrel infiltrated our garden and stole several jalapeño peppers and one crimson hot pepper. He chewed right through the crimson hot too, leaving only a small bit of flesh behind. I hope that squirrel's insides are a burning!

As you can see in the window beside me, we have to keep most of our plants inside to protect them from the squirrels,

but Laura figured hot peppers, of all things, would be safe outside. I guess the rodents in these parts are made of stronger metal than we'd given them credit for.

That plant you can see down in front (in the top picture) in its own pot is a habañero.

It doesn't have any fruit on it yet, but Laura says to give it a few more weeks. Then we'll see if those dastardly squirrels dare do battle with our habañero.

Lost in Translation

2009-07-17T14:53:00.005-04:00

Laura is always telling me how smart I am -- and I think she's right. I am smart. I know this because I know a lot of human words. For instance:

I know what "breakfast time" means.

TRANSLATION: Jump on the bed and rub your face in the blankets, and if your human doesn't get the hint, stick your bum up in the air real high. (It's important to start your day with a good bum massage when you are a princess.)

And I know what "dinner time" means.

TRANSLATION: Do the happy dance:

then run into the kitchen real fast before your human gets distracted with something else:

(Humans have short attention spans. You do not want to let them get side-tracked with email or some other computer thing when it is dinner time.)

I know what "come here" means.

TRANSLATION: Crack one eye open just a sliver to see if the prize being offered is worth the effort:

And I know what "let's go for a walk" means.

TRANSLATION: Run away and hide!

I even understand "it's not time yet, Princess Kendal."

TRANSLATION: Try harder.

Compare all of that to how poorly Laura understands puppy dog.

Laura is really smart, but sometimes, when I tell her it is dinner time, she fills my water bowl, and when I tell her my water bowl is empty, she tries to make me go outside in the yard!

Sometimes I let Laura sit on my throne, because I know it makes her feel important to sit there, but when I say to her, "Laura, it's my turn now please,"

she slaps her leg and says, "Come on then," like she thinks I'm going to climb up and sit on top of her lumpy body! Some days I have a devil of a time getting her to move so I can have my throne back.

Some nights, when I tell Laura it is bed time, she just says, "Kendal, stop licking me." Then she turns back to her computer. If I persist, she looks at me again and says, "Kendal, I have no idea what you want." After all the time we have been together, Laura still doesn't understand a simple thing like bed time.

So, like I said, I think all of the human vocabulary I have picked up over the years is pretty impressive in comparison.

There's still some human speech that eludes me, however. Sometimes Laura opens her mouth and words come out and I have no idea what she's talking about. I perk up my ears and look right at her.

Still no clue.

Now, being a smart Princess, I know some tricks to help me figure out what Laura is saying, even when she uses words I don't know. Watching her body language often gives me clues, especially if she gets up and starts walking about the house.

If Laura walks to the front door, I know to be wary.

That's not such a good direction. When Laura walks that way, she's usually going out someplace and telling me how long I'm going to be left home alone -- or worse: Sometimes she wants me to go outside with her.

If Laura walks towards the back of our house, however, I perk up.

Food is in that direction!

Laura doesn't always move around when she's talking, however. Sometimes she just sits at her computer and says strange things. When she does this, I tip my head to one side.

I've seen Laura do this when she is puzzled by something. It's supposed to help you understand things better.

If the held-tipping trick doesn't work, then I squint my eyes and peer at Laura through tiny slits.

Squinting is supposed to help with understanding too -- but sometimes it just makes me fall asleep!

For all of my smarts, however, there are still times when all of the head-tipping, eye-squinting, and paying-attention-to-body-language in the world doesn't help me. Like when I give Laura my very best "I'm so cute you cannot possibly deny me," grin:

and she just smiles and says, "Princess Kendal, I admire your perseverance."

What does that mean?

Hunting for Satellites

2009-07-09T13:31:00.005-04:00

Last night Laura said she was going out to look for the International Space Station. Then she went out our back door.

I wasn't really sure what an International Space Station was, and usually, when Laura goes out the back door, she doesn't go very far. She just goes to look at the plants in our backyard. They're mostly plants that produce spicy food. And I like food. But princesses aren't supposed to do their own gardening, so usually I just help Laura by sitting in the kitchen and keeping watch.

But last night, Laura walked right past our plants. She opened the gate, and she walked out of the yard and far away! I decided maybe I'd better not let Laura be that far away all by herself, so I went outside to help her.

It was dark outside, and I can't see very well in the dark -- but I can still smell things! Laura has better night vision than me, but I have a more sensitive sniffer. I still wasn't sure what we were looking for, but I figured anything that was so interesting it would entice Laura away from her computer to go and look for it must smell pretty good. So I put my nose to the ground and started sniffing for that space station.

But Laura said, "Come here Princess Kendal. Come and sit by me." Then she just lay down on the grass.

Well, I'm good at lying down too -- buy I like to lie down on my nice comfy bed, not on hard, prickly grass. This seemed like a funny way to go looking for something (whatever it was), but humans do get funny ideas sometimes. Sometimes Laura's funny ideas mean I have to do stuff that's hard, like walk really far, but so far nothing really bad has come of her ideas, so I decided to just go with the flow and lie down beside her.

I had almost found a spot that was semi-comfortable when Laura said, "There it is!" Then she jumped up and started walking across the grass, following this bright light in the sky.

Turns out that's what the International Space Station is. It's just this little light that flies across the sky. You can't smell it, and you certainly can't eat it!

"There's people up there," said Laura. "People from all over the world. There's a Canadian guy up there right now. They fly the whole way around the world in an hour and a half. Isn't that cool?"

I'm not really sure how big the world is. I'm just a puppy dog. I've never been outside of Ontario. But I know it takes more than an hour and a half just to get to my Mum and Dad's house -- and that's driving in a motor car. Motor cars are already pretty fast. So, if those space station people are going further than my Mum and Dad's house in only an hour and a half, they must be going super fast. I think that's more scary than cool. (But humans have these funny ideas, like I said.)

Then Laura started running. Running. After a light in the sky.

"Come on Princess Kendal," she said. She wanted to get someplace where we could see the space station disappear over the eastern horizon.

I tried to run as fast as I could, but my legs are little, and there's lots of tall buildings and trees where we live. We ran all the way around to the front of our house, but the space station still disappeared behind the next row of houses long before it ever got near the horizon. Then Laura and I had to walk all the way around back to our back door, because the front door was locked, and Laura hadn't brought a key.

After that, I got to sleep for almost and hour and a half before I had to follow Laura outside to look for that space station again.

This time, the grass wasn't just hard and prickly, it was cold and wet too! I love Laura, but she's not royalty like me. She has no appreciation for the finer comforts of life. At least she didn't try to make me run after the space station the second time. We just watched it disappear behind the houses to the north of us, then we went back inside...

... and Laura went straight to get my lead.

"Let's go for a walk, Princess Kendal," she said.

Hey. Wait a minute. I'd gone outside with Laura two times already that day. I got off my nice day bed to go walking in the cold wet grass to look for something that turned out not to be food. And now Laura wanted me to go for a walk too? Hmph!

Well, there's a game I play with Laura when she wants me to go for a walk with her and I don't want to go. I run away!

Running away works better in my Mum and Dad's house, because it's bigger, and there's more things to run around there. At my and Laura's house, there's only the coffee table and the dining room table -- and there's no use running into the kitchen or the bathroom at all. There's no escape from those rooms, so Laura always catches me if I go there. In our big party room though, I can evade Laura for longer.

Dining room tables are especially good for running away from people who are taller than you. Laura has great big long legs, which help her to run really fast out in the open, but my short little legs are faster for running underneath tables. So I run around and around the table, and make Laura chase me. Then, when she gets close, I run under the table and get away from her again!

I keep hoping that if I make Laura chase me for long enough, she will get tired and give up.

So far, that hasn't happened.

Helping to Put the Groceries Away

2009-06-27T15:15:00.004-04:00

Lately my big tub of kibble has been looking pretty empty. Every night Laura had to reach down further and further into it to get me my dinner.

I always get concerned when that happens. What would happen if we ran out? Princesses have sensitive stomachs. I cannot eat just anything.

Then, on Wednesday, Laura said she was going out shopping. "Don't worry, Princess Kendal," she said. "I'll be back as soon as I can, and maybe I'll bring something nice for you."

Well, Laura was gone for a long time. And when she came back home, the shopping cart was full, and her knapsack was full, and she had another big bag besides which was also full. Hurrah! More food for me! I followed Laura into the kitchen to help her put away the groceries.

Laura produced fruit and vegetables and olive oil and bread out of her knapsack. Then out of the other bag, she produced boxes, which she put in the freezer. Then she started to unpack the shopping cart. There was a big bag of soil in it, and two plants (we already had enough of those!) and a scary-looking thing that water comes out of when you tip it. (Fortunately, Laura likes to tip the water-thingy over the plants and not over me!) But there was no food for Princess Kendal. I put my nose inside the shopping cart, just to make sure, but there was nothing there. Nothing at all.

Where was my kibble?

That night, Laura had to reach down so far inside my kibble tub to find me my dinner, her head almost disappeared inside it! This was not good.

On Thursday, Laura went out with the shopping cart again. I figured she couldn't possibly be going to fetch any more plants, because we didn't have any more space in which to put them (except maybe my empty kibble tub) and we didn't need any more soil (all of the plant pots were full of that already) and Laura's food cupboards were all full too. Surely, this expedition had to be to find some food for me.

And I was right! Laura came back home with the shopping cart full of a big bag of Princess Kendal kibble!

That bag was so big, Laura couldn't get it out of the shopping cart, so she had to cut the top off in the cart and scoop out the kibble into my big kibble tub.

Well, that kibble tub was mighty empty when Laura first started on filling it, as I've said. But the new bag of kibble she brought home was really big. I watched the kibble tub get fuller and fuller.

What would happen if there wasn't room in my kibble tub for all of that food? We have to be tidy and put everything away in its proper place, and I didn't know where Laura could put my nice kibble if it wouldn't all fit in the tub.

So I decided I'd better help Laura by making sure there was room.

I like to be helpful.

Camping In

2009-06-25T14:53:00.002-04:00

Last night, Laura was working on her computer, too late as usual, so I reminded her it was time to go to bed.

Laura said, "You're right, Princess Kendal." Then she turned off her computer and turned out the lights and lay down on the sofa.

That's not right, I thought, so I reminded Laura again, as gently as I could, that it was time to go to bed.

Laura mumbled something about it being too hot. Then she rolled over and went to sleep.

This was not working out as I had planned. Laura was correct about it being hot, however. And it is a long flight of stairs up to our bed. Sometimes Laura needs to rest to recover her energy to carry me up all those stairs. I figured that was what Laura meant, so I lay down to wait while Laura had her nap.

Three hours later, Laura was still sleeping. That is a long nap! When I tried to remind her again about going up to bed, however, she didn't even move.

Well, I am a princess. I cannot just sleep on the floor! But Laura hadn't flattened out the sofa before she fell asleep on it. It was still folded in half, which meant there wasn't very much room with Laura already stretched out on it.

Finally, I found a spot where there was room for me to jump up by Laura's feet. It wasn't a very big spot, but I was able to use Laura's feet as a pillow, which was pretty comfy.

In the morning, I decided the sofa wasn't such a bad place to sleep. It was just like camping really, where you have to sleep someplace strange, only without the bugs and the scary fire. Plus, when we woke up, I didn't have to go downstairs to get my breakfast because I already was downstairs! I liked that part the best.

What If...?

2009-05-30T12:26:00.002-04:00

Last night, Laura was playing a game of "What If...?" in which she was brainstorming ideas for some stories she might like to write. I always like to try to help Laura, so I decided I would play too.

I didn't come up with as many ideas as Laura, but I had one that I thought was pretty good. How about this:

What if everybody knew that I am a Princess?

What do you think?

I think that could be a good story. Think about it:

1. If everyone knew that I am a Princess, I wouldn't have to be bored anymore when Laura is working on her computer, because I would always have people to play with me. Everybody wants to be in the presence of royalty, so my loyal subjects would be lining up every day to visit me, and they would all want to stroke my ears, rub my tummy, and give me nice bum massages.

2. If everyone knew that I am a Princess, I wouldn't have to stay behind when Laura goes out, because nobody would dare to say that a Princess couldn't come into their house.

3. If everyone knew that I am a Princess, I wouldn't have to walk anywhere anymore. Every time Laura wanted to go for a walk, my loyal subjects would build a chariot for me and they would carry me in it, so I could be with Laura on her walks and still sleep.

That's a story I would like to read.

When I told Laura about it, however, she said, "Thank you, Princess Kendal" in that way people do when they're being polite but they're not really going to use your idea.

Hmph!

Night Patrol

2009-05-19T13:12:00.003-04:00

Usually when Laura is in the bathroom, I like to rest on our bed. I know it's my job to be with Laura and look after her and protect her from bad people, but sometimes even a Princess needs a break. Our bathroom is in the middle of our house, so I figure Laura is safe in there.

Last night, however, while Laura was having her bath, I heard scary noises. There were explosions going off outside. Lots of them. Sometimes a whole bunch of little ones in quick succession and sometimes really loud ones.

I ran into the bathroom as quickly as I could to make sure Laura was okay, and I sat right beside her while she had her bath to keep her safe and help her not to be frightened.

House Rules

2009-04-19T19:37:00.002-04:00

One thing I don't like about visiting is that some people have funny house rules.

Like at my Mum and Dad's house: They have a really big room with all sorts of comfy furniture in it -- but they only let humans sit on the furniture! What is up with that? Also, my Mum keeps most of the beds in secret rooms behind closed doors. Only my Dad lets me go in his bedroom, but his bed is really tall, and I cannot jump that high.

There is one room, however, in which Laura and I usually stay when we visit. That room is supposed to have my bed in it. But ever since Laura moved our big red bed to our new home, it's been hard to find a place to sleep in my Mum and Dad's house, even in our old room.

Hmph! Laura didn't leave much room up here for me. I don't know why all of her bags need to be on this sofa.

Hah! I made a spot for me!

Shh! Don't tell anyone I'm up here!

Uh-oh. Someone's coming.

If I pretend to be asleep, maybe they won't make me get down.

Visiting

2009-04-19T19:14:00.002-04:00

Laura brought a car home this week and we used it to go and visit my Mum and Dad. I like to visit them and all of my other friends who come 'round to see me at their house like Melissa and Leanne.

Laura took me to visit my friends Barb and Trevor too, which I guess was okay. (Barb poked me in the bum and then she stuck my arm with a needle, but afterwards she gave me a pretty red bracelet, so I decided to forgive her.)

Sometimes when I am at my Mum & Dad's house my friend Claire comes to visit me -- but she didn't come this time. I was sad about that. Claire didn't come to my birthday party either. I haven't seen her in a long time and I miss her.

Maybe I can help Laura to find another reason to have a party, and then Claire could come to it.

It's BEDTIME, Laura!

2009-03-20T20:00:00.001-04:00

Last night Laura didn't go to bed until 10:15 this morning!

Now, before you go on saying, "Princess Kendal, that doesn't make any sense," -- I know!

I know it doesn't make sense. That's my point! Bedtime is supposed to be at bedtime, not after breakfast the next day.

I know when it's bedtime, and I try to tell Laura, but sometimes she gets so busy, she doesn't pay attention.

Inspiration

2009-03-06T13:56:00.002-05:00

This afternoon Laura and I were out walking when we saw another dog out for a walk with his human. That other dog was so tired, he had lain down on the sidewalk. Sprawled flat out on his side, he was, too tired to go one more step.

When the other dog heard us coming, however, he lifted his head. Then, when he saw me, he got so excited, he sprang right back up onto his feet again! I said "hello" to him and checked him out to make sure he was okay. Then he was ready to continue on with his walk.

Laura says it is good to be such an inspiration to others.

Towel Games

2009-03-05T13:10:00.003-05:00

Towel games are the most fun to play!
Here is how you play them:

First, your human gets the towel and she has to try to throw the towel on top of you.
Your job is to jump out of the way and to grab the towel in your mouth.
If your human succeeds in getting the towel onto you, you have to find a way to get it off. Then you grab the towel and run away, and your human has to chase you!

Sometimes I let Laura think she is winning the towel game.
(It is important to let your human believe this every now and again. You don't want her to get discouraged and stop playing with you!)

Then I take the towel and run and jump onto the futon.
If I can get the towel away from Laura and get onto the futon with it, I win!

Back in the olden days, Laura only used to play towel games with me if I went outside in the rain or the snow or the mud first. Slowly, however, I have been training her to play towel games every time I come back in from being outside. (Why should we miss out on such a fun game, just because the ground is dry and the sun is shining?)

Laura has been getting pretty good at remembering to play towel games with me every time, but sometimes she still forgets, and I have to remind her. This gave me an idea:

Since Laura sometimes forgets about our towel game, maybe I could convince her that she had even forgotten that I'd been outside! I don't always like going outside because it has been cold outside lately, and there is a big step down into our backyard that's scary for a little puppy like me, and the top step even sinks when you step on it -- and that's super scary! I love to play towel games with Laura though, so I tried this:

First I got Laura's attention and got her to open the patio door for me.
Then I waited in the kitchen for a couple of minutes.
Then, once Laura had closed the door again, I ran over to my towel and tried to get Laura to pull it down off its railing.

It didn't work though.
Laura remembered that I hadn't really been outside.

Drat.

You Put Your Left Foot In...

2009-03-04T14:43:00.003-05:00

Laura and I have a big dance hall in our home in which we like to dance and do yoga.

I especially like to do yoga.

Yoga is easy!

Even Piggy likes to do yoga.
Here he is practising his nose stand.
(I am spotting him to make sure he doesn't fall.)

Here Today, Gone Tomorrow

2009-03-04T14:19:00.003-05:00

All of my beautiful snow is gone again.

I had fun in it while it lasted though:

I love to make snow angels!

It smells like my neighbour Sierra buried something good back here.

I wonder what it could be.

I'll find that treasure yet!

Dogbogganing!

It's best to lead with your nose.

Mud!

2009-03-04T13:55:00.001-05:00

Laura and I went exploring in our favourite park on Sunday. As you can see, it was a little muddy.

I don't mind getting muddy so much, because it means that, once we get back home, Laura will have to spend a long time playing towel games with me. I love to play games with my towel! It is my favourite toy of all!

Me and Claire

2009-02-02T22:54:00.002-05:00

This is a picture of me and my friend Claire.
See. She really does love me.

This is how it's supposed to be when Laura hosts a party:
Laura cooks food and entertains the other guests, but I get to sit with Claire!

Sniff

2009-02-02T22:36:00.002-05:00

Claire didn't come to my party.

I tried not to be angry because Laura said it wasn't Claire's fault.
She said it wasn't even Loretta's fault.
(Sometimes that Loretta comes to visit Laura and she doesn't bring Claire with her and then I do get mad because Loretta knows that I love Claire and she is supposed to bring her to visit me!)
But Laura said Loretta tried to bring Claire to our party, and they didn't make it because there was too much snow.

I don't really understand that.
Snow is fun.
More snow equals more fun.
Sometimes there is so much snow, the snow is taller than I am! But I still go out exploring in it.
Laura says it is different when you are driving a car though. She says snow isn't very much fun then.

Anyhow... I tried not to be angry, because you shouldn't be angry at people unless they really deserve it.
And I tried not to be sad.

But I was sad.

I really love Claire and I miss her and Laura promised Claire would come to our party and then she didn't.

It is hard to live so far away from your friends.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2009-01-16T23:04:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday to me!
Happy Birthday Princess Kendal!
Happy Birthday to me!

Today is my birthday!
I am eleven years old!
(Laura says that is a very good age.)

Laura is making me my very favourite cookies for my birthday because she loves me! Also today I got to play in the snow, and then when I came inside Laura played fun towel games with me and then I got to sit on her lap. And I didn't have to go to the puppy park today! Yay! I am a big girl now so I don't have to play with those ankle-biters anymore!

Tomorrow we are having a big party to celebrate my birthday.
(Well. Okay. It is Laura's Rainbow Day party. But I was born in Canada so I think that makes my birthday my Rainbow Day. So tomorrow's party is really for me too.)
My friends Alex and Jennifer are coming and my best friend Claire too! I can hardly wait!

Winter Wonderland

2008-12-21T23:46:00.003-05:00

All month long here the snow has been coming and going, coming and going. We'll have a glorious blanket of fresh snow one day, then the next day it's gone. I have learned to go outside right away after a snowfall and play in it as much as I can before it melts.

Last weekend, Laura and I went hiking in our special place. It had snowed the day before, but only some of the snow had melted, leaving the ground pretty slippery. Laura fell splat, right on her bum. I ran back to see if she was okay, but Laura just lay on the ground laughing. I am teaching her to enjoy playing in the snow too!

I ran all over the park: down to the river, through the woods and back through the sleeping wildflower meadow -- and I didn't fall down once. Sometimes having four little legs is an advantage over two big tall ones!

Alas, a couple of days later, all of that beautiful snow had melted away again, but this Friday it came back. It snowed and it snowed and it snowed. By dinnertime, the snow in our yard was so deep, it came up to my head! I had a fun time scooting and digging and tunneling through the snow. Then I came inside and made Laura play towel games with me. I bet all of that snow won't be able to melt away in any hurry!

Yesterday, Laura and I had our Yule Party. I was a bit apprehensive about the party because Laura said my friend Claire wasn't coming -- and what is the point of having a party without Claire?

The last time Laura had a party, I didn't know any of the people who came, and they all just sat around talking about writing things all afternoon, and no one wanted to play with me. It was very boring.

Laura said this would be a good party, however, and she turned out to be correct. I made two new friends called Alex and Jennifer. They sat and talked to me all night, and I had a good time -- even though Laura wouldn't let me sit on the futon!

Before the party, Laura had taken the futon cover downstairs where there's that noisy machine. Every time Laura brings clothing and blankets and stuff back up from that machine, they smell funny. I was trying to do my part once Laura put the cover back on the futon to make it smell nice again for our guests, but Laura kicked me off. Then she put her guitar on the futon, right in the middle so it was taking up almost all of the space, and I couldn't get back on. I don't know why she did that. Her guitar didn't do anything to make the futon smell nice, and when our guests arrived, they had to sit on it with it still smelling all soapy!

No one seemed to mind, however, and I got to sit on my throne all night, with my new friends beside me, so everyone was happy. I hope Alex and Jennifer will come to our next party too!

Anyhow... Laura says it is bedtime, so I will sign off for now and say good night and happy solstice everybody! Have fun in the snow!

River Pictures

2008-11-28T20:16:00.001-05:00

Finally. November is almost over and I get a chance to get back on the computer. (Laura is finished her 50K for NaNoWriMo already. She is supposed to be working on her term paper for class today, but instead she is making soup, so I get the computer!)

I want to show you some more pictures of the special place where Laura and I go hiking near our home. These are pictures from one of our fall trips there. (Once Laura is done her classes for this term, maybe we can go back and take some winter pictures.)

You all know how much my friend Laura loves the water. Well, look at where we can walk to, right from our home:

I like the river too, because it is a good place to have a drink. (Laura hikes very far, and that makes me thirsty!)

In some places, the river isn't so quiet.

I can do this.

I am so brave!

Hey! Don't laugh! That was a big stream for a little puppy like me to cross all by herself!

You're still laughing, aren't you. I can hear you naysayers, betting that I won't do it, that I won't cross the big river...

... well, I'll show you!

That's me in that picture. Me. Princess Kendal. Fording the rapids.

Come on in, Laura! The water's nice and cool and it tickles my feet!

That was fun!

Once you are done playing in the water, you should shake really hard to get dry. If your human was too afraid to go in the water with you, be sure to stand really close to her when you shake. That way, she will at least be able to enjoy the river's watery goodness second hand.

I think I'll lie here for a bit now and rest.

Bathroom Blessing

2008-11-02T10:52:00.002-05:00

Here is another video from our new home Blessing Party.

Laura and my Mum and our friends Loretta and Tammy and my best friend Claire are all blessing the bathroom.

Now, if you are ever visiting us and you have occasion to use the bathroom, and you notice how great the energy is in there, you will know why!

Tee-Hee

2008-11-02T10:43:00.002-05:00

Here is a funny video from the blessing party for Laura and my new home.

That little boy who is always coming around was at the party, and while he was here, he went poop in the toilet. Apparently, this is a big deal for humans. I'm not sure what the attraction is. Those toilet things look scary and not at all comfortable. Me, I prefer a nice piece of soft grass. Anyhow...

Using the toilet is, as I've said, a big deal for humans. This little boy was so proud of himself that he made John sing and dance to celebrate:

It's Back

2008-10-31T23:23:00.002-04:00

You may not have been following my friend Laura's writing blog lately -- because she's not been too active on it since last November -- but she's back now. And you know why: That frightful NaNoWriMo thing is rearing its ugly head again.

Laura has been planning for almost two months now, scribbling down notes on little pieces of card. She's also been planning to leave me home alone while she goes out and about on the town, meeting up with other NaNo participants in our city. Isn't it bad enough that she spends every waking moment sitting at her computer in November? Does she really need to go out socializing too? (Last year Laura attended "write-ins" online. She didn't need to leave our home to go to them and I got to sit right beside her. This year, however, she says she is going to "real world" write-ins. She says they are better. Humph!)

Anyhow, Laura does as Laura will, and she's doing NaNo again, so I apologize if I don't get much time on the computer in the next month to update my blog!

She did at least take me to my favourite park tonight. We didn't go last weekend, because Laura had a major paper to write for school, but we went tonight once it was nice and quiet. It was dark too, but I didn't mind that. I have a good nose and can sniff out the good paths!

Before the nice park, however, Laura made me go to that puppy park again. She really wants me to be friends with those rambunctious little ankle-biters for some reason. I just don't see the attraction. They are always horsing around. And they poke at my bum. Somebody should teach them better manners! There are nice people in the puppy park though. They stroke my ears and say what a good dog I am, and they tell the puppies not to bother me. I don't mind going to the puppy park so much when I get to visit with my nice human friends there.

New Friend

2008-10-19T16:14:00.002-04:00

Hi everybody!

This is just a quick update, because we have limited access to the Internet at the moment, and Laura needs to use it for her work, but I wanted to let you know that we have been exploring in our favourite park again, and Laura finally remembered to bring the camera!

I don't have time to show you all of the pictures today, but I wanted to introduce you to my new friend:

This is me and my new friend Tuque.

Laura and I were resting in a quiet place at the water's edge, when Tuque came running through the forest to meet us. I knew right away that she was a nice dog, so I ran straight up to her to say hello.

Tuque didn't bark at me or try to climb on top of me or run into me or do any of those other rude things that some of the dogs Laura wants me to be friends with do, and I wasn't afraid of her at all.

Tuque has her own page on the Web too! You can view it here.
I hope that I will get to play with Tuque again soon!

I will try to post more photos soon.
(If you want a sneak peak, you can view them here.)

Out and About

2008-10-12T19:31:00.003-04:00

Last weekend Laura went to a concert that was twenty-five kilometres away.
She went there on her bicycle.

"Isn't it great that we live so close to all of these wonderful events now?" Laura said.

I don't know about that. I liked it when we lived in the middle of nowhere so there was nowhere to go and Laura stayed home with me all the time. I mean, I'm sure the concert was fun. My friend Tannis was there. I would have liked to see her. And Katherine. I've never met her, but I like her music. And Wendell was there too. Remember how Ashton wanted to be a cowdog in Wendell's band? Poor Ashton never got to realize that dream, but maybe if I get to meet Wendell someday I could at least tell him what a big fan Ashton was. But twenty-five kilometres is a bit far for me. I mean, I could walk that far, but then I would be too tired to walk home again afterwards. And no way am I getting on one of those scary bicycle things. They look dangerous!

Laura doesn't ride her bicycle everyday though. Some days she stays closer to home, and there are lots of nice places we can walk to together. (Not like the last place we lived where the only places to walk were on the road with the cars or in that marsh with the scary bullfrogs!)

My favourite place to walk here is the woods. It is quiet there, and there are fields full of pretty flowers and a river you can drink from and lots of interesting paths. And no bicycles!

Well, there is that one bicycle that was abandoned, but it doesn't move, and I stay well away from it. Usually it is the only one. But today, when we got to the park, there were two children there, right at the entrance, on a bicycle! Those are the scariest bicycles of all, the ones with children on them, so I suggested to Laura that we enter the park by a different route.

Laura agreed, and I bet she's glad she did because we found lots of new paths to explore today. I even found a secret path that Laura wouldn't have seen if I hadn't shown it to her. It was a really nice path, covered in a thick layer of rich black mud that felt so good between my toes! It led to a babbling brook where I had a nice long drink and a mud bath. Hmm-mmm! That was fun! Also, we saw a deer! I bet we wouldn't have seen a deer in the part of the park where the children were playing on that bicycle.

I want to post some pictures of how pretty our woods are, but Laura keeps forgetting to bring the camera.

When she got there the cupboard was bare!

2008-09-30T23:08:00.002-04:00

Sorry I haven't written in so long. It's been a crazy summer.

Laura and I have been trying to move house. That meant that Laura was away a lot, looking for a new place to live and getting things ready so that we could move there and when she was home she was packing all of our stuff and loading it up into a big van and then she was gone again. I have to use Laura's computer to post these blog entries and I need Laura's help to do that and she wasn't available much. Anyhow... we are in our new place now, so I'm back.

Laura says this is a good place to live, but I'm not so sure yet.

Yesterday I ate up the last of my nice lamb and rice kibble for my dinner. Laura said not to worry because this is such a good place to live, there is a 24 hour A&P really close by and they sell my yummy dinner there. She said she would pick up a new bag on her way home from class.

Well, Laura went off to her class, and I was a very good dog and guarded the sofa while she was out so no monsters could come and carry it off, and then Laura came back home again -- without any food. They had a sale at the A&P and people had bought up all of my nice dinner.

Laura says this is a good place to live because we have nice neighbours here, but I don't think it was very neighbourly to buy up all of the lamb and rice kibble for themselves and leave none for me!

I try not to be greedy. I don't ask for a lot. But moving house is hard work. I burned up many calories watching Laura carry all of that stuff around. I need to eat something and I'm not so polyphagous as Laura. I'm just a little puppy dog with a sensitive stomach and I need my lamb and rice.

Laura said not to worry. She said she would go back to the store today. Maybe they would have some more food in before dinner time. Then she let me help her make chicken curry, so I wouldn't feel so bad.

I love to help Laura cook, and I am a good helper! Especially when she makes dishes with mango in them.

Mango is very yummy and it smells so good and the squirrels think so too. Mangoes also have a big stone in the middle of them, which you cannot eat. It's difficult to get all of the nice mango flesh off of the stone, but if you put the stone out in the compost with some of the yummy part still on it, the squirrels will smell it and dig through your compost to get it and make a big mess all over the lawn. So I always help Laura when she is cooking with mangoes by making sure that stone is very clean before it goes in the compost. Sometimes it takes a long time to get the stone clean, but I don't mind. Like I said before, I am a good helper, and I always try to do my best.

This morning Laura had some of the yummy chicken curry that I helped her make for her breakfast. Laura said the curry was very good, and I knew she was happy I had helped her because there was no compost on our lawn. Then, this afternoon, Laura went back to the store, just like she had promised, to get some dinner for me.

They still didn't have any of my dinner at the A&P, so Laura went on to Zellers, but they were all sold out too. So Laura went to Canadian Tire. Still no luck. Everywhere had lots of other kinds of dog food, but nobody had my lamb and rice. Laura even hiked out to the No Frills, which is far away for carrying home my big bag of dinner, but Laura loves me so she went the distance. Alas, they didn't have any there either.

Meanwhile, my tummy was starting to get very grumbly. It was seven o'clock and the sky was getting dark and menacing and Laura still wasn't home.

Finally Laura came back with a big huge bag. It didn't look like my dinner, but Laura said it was still lamb and rice, just a different kind. A more expensive kind -- which is hard right now because we don't have very much income -- but Laura said I am worth it. (And I am!)

So I had my new, special, princess food for dinner tonight -- and it was very yummy!
Maybe this will be a good place to live after all.

Me-Me, On the Beach!

2008-06-04T23:22:00.004-04:00

Last week Laura and my Dad and I went to the beach.

Usually it is difficult for my Dad to go to the beach because of all that sand, but they had a boardwalk at this beach:

and a nice wooden sun deck:

Do you see where Laura has left her shoes?

And do you know why?

Yep.
She went in the lake.
In May.
And she made me go in too!
It was COLD.

You know how Laura is about water though.

Me, I prefer a nice sunny spot with a cool, clear bowl of water nearby.

On our way to the beach, Laura and my Dad wanted to eat at a nearby restaurant, but the waiter there was mean and refused to serve us. I was sad because the waiter said it was my fault, but Laura said not to mind. She said we didn't need that stinky old restaurant anyway.

Laura is a good cook. She makes good food, like this yummy Seafood Linguine that she created tonight. (So there, you mean waiter you! We don't need you! We have better food at home.)

Cheeky

2008-06-02T16:18:00.001-04:00

We've been putting oranges out in our yard for the Orioles.

The first orange had orioles at it all day long, and a hummingbird too. Recently, however, we've not seen orioles or hummingbirds in the yard -- yet the oranges were still being picked clean in a day or two.

Surely it wasn't insects sucking up all that juice, we thought.

Now we know!

Oh Laura!

2008-05-26T21:31:00.001-04:00

Sometimes you have to humour your human.

Laura likes to dance in the rain -- and afterwards she will play fun games with me like tug-o-war with my nice soft towel -- so I try to oblige when she wants me to pose for silly photographs like this one.

When the Cat's Away...

2008-05-22T22:58:00.002-04:00

It's party time at Tyrcuill because my Mum is away on vacation. For two and a half weeks I can make as much mess as I like and no one will yell at me!

I am being good though. I am helping Laura to look after my Dad and I am helping Laura to do her exercises. Take tonight for instance: Laura was doing her usual interpretive dance sort of routine, then she lay down on the floor. Then she sat up again. Then she lay down again. Then she sat up again. Down. Up. Down. Up. Obviously she was having difficulty deciding where she wanted to be, so I went over to help her.

When I got to Laura's side, she said hello, but she kept right on sitting up, lying down, sitting up, lying down. At first I wasn't sure what I could do to help, so I sniffed around a bit to try to figure it out.

Every time Laura lay down, she would raise her arms up over her head. When she did this, I noticed that her arm pits were really sweaty. Ah ah! Now I knew how I could help!

My friend Laura likes to be clean. Obviously she couldn't keep the sweat off her arm pits while she was still trying to figure out if she wanted to be sitting up or lying down, so I decided to clean them for her.

My idea turned out to be a good one because, as soon as I started licking her arm pits, Laura lay back down on the floor and stayed there. Obviously I helped her to decide what to do! Also, once Laura realized she wanted to be lying down, she was so happy she started to laugh. She laughed and she laughed and she couldn't stop for a long time. It is always good to make people laugh.

See how helpful I am?

Shh! Don't tell anyone!

2008-05-05T21:28:00.002-04:00

Laura hasn't made me go for a walk for three days!

On Saturday, Laura was out of town at a writers' conference all day. I was sad that she was away, but it meant I got to sleep all day.

Yesterday was our bird watching day. We were busy feeding the birds and then sitting very still to take photographs of them. Then Laura decided that we should have a bonfire so she could jump over it. (Don't ask me what that is all about. Fires are dangerous. I try to stay very far away from them. Humans have funny ideas though, like jumping over the first bonfire of May to ensure prosperity for the coming year. Anyhow, it got me out of having to go hiking for a second day in a row.)

Today Laura has been busy uploading our photographs to Flickr and adding new recipes to the Polyphagous Dragon and I have been trying to get caught up-to-date on Confessions of a Canine Cyber-Widow and now it is 9:45 p.m. and so far no walk.

Now, now. I don't want you to get the wrong idea. I'm not a lazy dog. Oh, no. It's just that Laura likes to hike so very far -- and she has much longer legs than me! Every day she makes me walk around the local marsh. It is a long walk and it's noisy there. The bull frogs are very loud! I'm surprised they don't scare off the red-winged blackbirds.

The marsh is full of red-winged blackbirds. Laura keeps trying to photograph them, but they are kind of shy. They hide deep in the bullrushes so you cannot see them very well, and they fly away if you get too close.

There are bunny rabbits that live at the marsh too.

The bunnies are not as shy. Sometimes they join us for part of our walk -- but they don't walk the whole way with us. Bunnies have strong legs, but they understand that their legs are little and they shouldn't walk as far as Laura!

Gone to the Birds

2008-05-05T19:46:00.003-04:00

This weekend was all about the birds.

Laura filled up all of the bird feeders in our yard. She put out sunflower seeds and peanuts (I ate the ones that fell on the ground!) and raisins and corn, and small seeds for the little finches, and she nailed half of a fresh orange onto our cherry tree and half to our rowan tree. The birds had a major feast.

Birds sure can eat, I can tell you that! By the end of the day, they had consumed an enormous amount of food, but we got lots of pretty pictures.

We had three Baltimore Orioles come to visit:

This one had his head in the clouds:

Clouds of cherry blossoms, that is. The orioles love our cherry tree:

They also loved the orange that Laura put out for them:

This rose-breasted grosbeak came to our finch feeder:

and this downy woodpecker came to our suet box feeder:

Laura is sad because the birds love the suet box feeder and the old log that my Dad put out for them, but so far nobody has come to the suet feeder she made for them. This weekend she moved it onto a tree which we know the woodpeckers like, so hopefully they will notice it now. I think it is a very fine feeder. I would lick the suet out of it if I could reach up that high!

The suet-eaters may not appreciate Laura's work, but the cardinals loved the niger seed she put out for them on our tray feeder:

Laura got lots of great photos of this little guy:

We also saw a lady goldfinch:

a boy goldfinch:

a red-breasted nuthatch:

(they like to eat upside down!)

mourning doves:

white-crowned sparrows:

and a chipping sparrow:

My Dad took this very special photo of a hummingbird:

You almost never see them sitting still -- even when they are eating they are still flying -- but this one perched on one of our oranges for a drink and let my Dad get a nice picture.

I like bird-watching because you have to sit very still and try not to move at all and we don't even have to leave our own yard to see lots of pretty birds.

At the end of a nice, peaceful day, this cute white-throated sparrow sat out in our yard with us to watch the sunset:

Hello Again

2008-05-05T19:33:00.002-04:00

I know. It's been a while.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the computer because Laura has been so busy but I've been having lots of adventures and have many nice photos to show you. I will try to get caught up.

Happy Birthday to Me!

2008-01-16T23:57:00.001-05:00

Today is my birthday!

I am ten years young!

I was hoping for a big party with lots of loving and attention, but Laura had to go out this morning and then she had work to do on her computer. She has been on the computer all afternoon and all night and now my birthday is almost over and I barely even got a chance to post a birthday message! Laura has been hogging the computer all day and she hasn't even made my favourite cookies yet which she promised to make for my birthday!

I don't understand why humans spend so much time on their computers. I'm much prettier and I'm soft and cuddly and I'm good and smart too!

Laura! Laura, that's enough work for today! It's bed time!

Calendar Girl

2007-12-25T01:45:00.003-05:00

Laura made a 2008 calendar for all of our friends, featuring photographs of yours truly. If you would like one, you can download it from here.

Happy Holidays

2007-12-25T01:45:00.001-05:00

More Feasting

2007-12-18T13:01:00.000-05:00

This weekend our friend Cheryl came to visit us, so Laura cooked feast for the fourth time this month! She says I have to walk more now to make up for all of the food she has been eating! I don't so much mind when it's snowy though. I love to play in the snow. Today is nice because it is sunny and warm out but there is still lots of snow on the ground. Laura and I even played catch with snowballs. (I like to catch them in my mouth and eat them!)

I decided to let the squirrels feast this weekend too.

Normally I chase them out of our yard -- we put up these feeders for the birds, not those rascally squirrels! -- but squirrels need to eat too and it might be difficult for them to find food elsewhere with so much snow on everything. (Besides, we do have plenty of food to spare with all of the cooking Laura has been doing!)

Now this is SNOW!

2007-12-18T12:54:00.000-05:00

Dogbogganning

2007-12-13T19:04:00.000-05:00

It snowed again last night! The grass was still sticking up through the snow this morning, but there was enough of that wonderful white goodness for some fun dogbogganning!

Two nights ago when we went for our walk, it was raining! I didn't mind because I knew the rain would make Laura happy. Plus, we had a big party weekend this past weekend. Laura cooked feast three days in a row so we had to do some extra hiking to burn off all of those calories!

I was a bit sad on the weekend because my friend Claire didn't come to any of our parties and Claire is my most favourite person (next to Laura) and I thought I might get to see her because usually she does come to our parties. When our friend Loretta visited us, however, she let me sit on her lap, so then I was happy.

Let it Snow!

2007-12-05T12:23:00.000-05:00

Invasion of the Bed Snatchers

2007-11-20T14:16:00.000-05:00

Laura is finished her 50K. Finished. Yet she's still writing! She says National Novel Writing Month isn't over yet, so she needs to keep going. Plus, the story isn't finished yet.

I've tried to be supportive. I've tried to be understanding. But this is getting to be a bit much. She's even bringing that blasted machine into the bed with us now!

How is a puppy supposed to sleep with that monster in the bed?

Confessions of a Wrimo Widow -- Week One

2007-11-07T15:27:00.000-05:00

Here we are. One week into November. Laura is well ahead of her required word count and yet still she sits at her computer all day, pounding away on those keys. She would have more time to play with me if she truly wrote with the wild abandon that one is supposed to use for National Novel Writing Month, but you know Laura. She wants to write something that's actually good.

So I try to be patient. I sleep lots. This I don't mind, so long as I can sleep beside Laura. Sometimes she goes to the library to write, however, and that makes me sad. Most of the time she is still home, working on her computer, just like any other day, however. The biggest changes have been to our schedule.

For some reason, Laura believes that getting out of bed at an obscene hour of the morning is key to one's novelling success. (I don't mind that she wants to go to bed early as well, but I ask you: Is there really ever any reason to get out of bed before noon?)

I wasn't so sure about this whole getting up before the sun gig. The first time Laura did it, I thought she was joking and just stayed in bed. The next day, however, I thought I should follow her and make sure she was okay.

It turns out, she was only going into the living room, where she rolled out her nice red mat. I know what those thin mats are for. I've been camping before. I picked a good spot beside Laura and settled right back down to sleep.

Laura was more restless than I, unfortunately. How's a princess supposed to get her beauty sleep with all of these crazy calisthenics going on overhead?

Trick or Treat

2007-10-30T13:25:00.000-04:00

National Novel Writing Month is less than two days away.

If you, like me, are concerned that you may lose the attentions of your very best friend in the whole wide world as she embarks on her own crazy quest to complete a 50,000 word novel in 30 days, I have an idea which may help you:

Earlier this month, I blogged about my plan to avoid going for walks by making sure I come home from each one good and dirty. I've been implementing that plan with limited success so far (my Mum really doesn't want me to go for walks anymore, but Laura isn't deterred), but I think I may have hit upon an even better use for the good old fashioned roll in the mud.

Now, for this plan to work, you have to find something to roll in that is really smelly -- and I mean SMELLY. And you have to roll in it good. A little sniff at the offering left by a neighbourhood friend might not be good enough for this tactic to work. You need to find something that smells really strong and you have to roll your whole body in it. Make sure to get lots of that smell behind your ears, on your face, on your belly, and in the nice thick long hairs of your back.

I found a suitable spot on my neighbours' lawn this morning, and I made good use of it while Laura was collecting the gift I had left for her on our own lawn. By the time Laura was ready to go back inside, I was covered from nose to tail in this wonderful stinky goodness.

Whatever this stuff was, I managed to get it matted nice and thickly into my hair. A little scrub with a wet nap was not enough to do away with the smell, so Laura had to mix up a pail of nice warm soapy water and take me back outside for a shampoo!

My Mum doesn't let me use her bathroom, which worked out to my advantage this morning. Laura scrubbed my whole coat down, gave me a nice belly rub and a strong butt scratching, then, while she was wringing out the sponge she had been using, I took the opportunity to roll in the grass right beside where Laura had been washing my hair. All sorts of lovely stuff from our lawn stuck to my wet fur -- and Laura had to give me another shampoo all over again!

I figure, all told, I had Laura's undivided attention for at least half an hour!
NaNoWriMo, you won't whip me!

She's At It Again

2007-10-23T22:00:00.000-04:00

Laura has started yet another blog!

This one doesn't even have a title yet! In fact, I'm supposed to ask you all to go there and vote on what you want the title to be. There's not much time left to vote and the four proposed titles for the blog are all still running pretty much neck and neck! (Laura might end up needing to give it four names at this rate!)

Here's a little backgrounder: The blog is a group story being written by members of the SL Wrimos group which takes place entirely within the virtual world of Second Life. It's a bit of crazy fun about avatars in the metaverse, and you can have a say in what their adventures are called.

I just hope Laura will still have some time to play with me with all of this writing she is doing!

New Music

2007-10-18T14:46:00.000-04:00

Last weekend Laura went away for FOUR DAYS!

That was a long time for Laura to be gone, and I was very sad.

Then Laura came back home... and I was very tired!

Laura had been to a folk music conference from which she brought home a new CD and she said we had to dance to EVERY SONG because she had promised Tannis that we would.

I'm not sure why Laura's promise obligated me, but I did try my best. I twirled around the kitchen with Laura, and I practiced my yoga, and I let Laura use my rib cage as a drum.

I really like the new slow mix of "My Body Moves" (Laura, of course, likes the fast version), but some of these musicians write dangerous songs. Tannis' new CD, for instance, has a song on it called "My Bike". Laura has one of those scary contraptions out in the garage and, listening to Tannis' song, Laura decided she should get one of those trailers for little people and hitch it to the back of her bike and make me ride in it!

"Then we could ride all over the county!" Laura said.

Don't these musicians know how suggestible Laura is? One song and Laura is full of crazy ideas. And she'll do it too! She'll put me in one of those little tents and drag me around behind that scary contraption of hers goodness knows where! Laura has an unhealthy lack of appreciation for laying about in bed all day.

Take this new CD for instance: Laura danced to EVERY SONG on it! Every song. It's 12 minutes longer than Tannis' last CD but Laura still danced for the whole thing.

I think maybe Laura was trying to prove to herself that she's not OLD because she went to this conference where people party and there is cool music until 4:00 a.m. every night -- and lots of performers who Laura knows and loves were there performing in these late night gigs -- and Laura left at 11:30 every night and went back to our friend Pam's house and slept!

Well, I'm not worried about that. I like my beauty sleep and I'm not afraid to admit it. I like Tannis' music, but I'm glad there was a safe place I could lie down and listen to it nice and quietly while Laura was spinning around.

Laura is too tall to dance under here!

Referendum Ontario

2007-10-09T20:58:00.000-04:00

Today Laura is blogging about something other than NaNoWriMo!

If you are an eligible voter in Ontario, you should go out tomorrow and exercise your right to vote in both the general election and the referendum -- but before you vote, you should read this post by my friend Laura.

I'm a Wrimo Widow

2007-10-04T20:17:00.000-04:00

National Novel Writing Month is still 27 days away and already I'm a Wrimo Widow!

Have you been keeping up with Laura's blog? She's posting daily now -- all about her crazy plan to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days! She went down to the local library today to find out if she'd be able to work on her novel there next month, and she's set up a new group within Second Life for SL Wrimos. Worst of all, have you read this post? She claims she is going to start hiking 4 miles a day again in November! Somehow she thinks this will be necessary to her success at writing a novel in a month, and you know what Laura's hiking 4 miles per day will mean: It will mean that she intends for me to go with her!

I showed her what I thought of that plan last night by making her chase me twice to get me to put my collar on for our walk. Laura was undeterred, however, I think I may have hit upon a new tactic:

We went to the park for our walk, as per usual, and I found a nice fresh spot on the grass to roll in. I mean really fresh. It was warm and steamy and smelled super. I rolled and I rolled. I rubbed all over both sides of my head and neck on that spot.

Laura was not impressed.

When we got back home, Laura scrubbed my whole body down with one of those stinky cloths. She even scrubbed inside my ears! That was not nice. The upside, however, is that my Mum was even less impressed than Laura. If I can find a nice fresh spot again tonight and bring some more of that wonderful smelly goodness into the house, my Mum might declare that I'm no longer ALLOWED to go for walks with Laura!

It's worth a try.

Tyrcuill Butterflies

2007-09-30T19:36:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, no one would play with me.

Laura was busy at her computer all day and most of the afternoon, setting up the Raindancing Dragons blog. My Mum went out shopping and my Dad went out to shoot photographs. Then, after dinner, Laura and my Dad went outside to juice apples for their next batch of cider. Laura had said that I could help them, but then my Mum wouldn't let me. She made me come inside but then she wouldn't play with me either. She just sat down and watched television.

The only good part about yesterday was that I got to sleep lots and, when Laura brought the apple juice inside, our kitchen smelled yummy.

Our yard smelled yummy too from all of those nice apples. Some pulp got left behind on the lawn and this morning our yard was full of butterflies attracted to all of that appley goodness.

Laura and I saw a beautiful Mourning Cloak and an Eastern Comma. Then Laura and our Dad and I went back outside with our cameras. Laura saw a Red Admiral and a Painted Lady, but they didn't have time to have their photographs taken today. The Eastern Commas, however, were eager for a photo shoot. (Or perhaps just too interested in the apple pulp to bother about moving out of the way of whatever was going on around them!)

Look carefully. This is another picture of an Eastern Comma.

When their wings are folded up, they are camouflaged really well. If you blink, you may not be able to find a resting Comma again until it spreads its wings and shows you its bright topside once more.

That little silver hook-shaped mark on the underside of its wing is how the Eastern Comma gets its name.

I sat outside with my Dad for a long time and helped to watch for butterflies

but our Mourning Cloak never returned.

Childhood Haunts

2007-09-29T16:22:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Laura and I returned to our childhood home to visit our friend Cheryl.

I had not seen Cheryl in many years, because she had been living in British Columbia and that is too far away for even a Super Camper like me to hike! Yesterday was also my first time returning to my old home town since Ashton and my Mum and Dad and I moved away three years ago. We live pretty far away now too, but yesterday Laura had to drive our Mum and Dad to a wedding that was almost all the way there, so we decided to drive on a bit further and visit Cheryl.

When we arrived at Cheryl's house, the first thing Laura and Cheryl wanted to do was go hiking. (Laura's friends seem to do a lot of that sort of thing. Laura's friend Tracy even competed in a marathon recently. That's over 42 kilometres! Whatever has become of good, wholesome appreciation for rest and relaxation?)

Cheryl took us out to Hilton Falls, which is where she likes to hike. The forest there is pretty, but the falls weren't exactly falling while we were there. There was just a dry riverbed, then a steep drop into another dry river bed. I took the opportunity to lie down and rest while Laura and Cheryl discussed seasonal vs. long-term changes to the local water table.

After Hilton Falls, we went back to Cheryl's house for dinner. Then it was time to pick up our Mum and Dad and head on home. Laura has been at her computer all day today, busy setting up yet another blog and I have been taking the opportunity to rest up in bed. (It is hard work, sleeping in the car for such a long ride!)

More Rondeau Adventures

2007-09-27T20:02:00.001-04:00

Last Thursday, Laura and I took my Dad to Rondeau to introduce him to all of our butterfly friends. He brought along his big camera, which can take better photographs than the little point-and-shoot Laura and I had along on our camping trip. All of the monarchs had left, however. We went right to the south point of the peninsula and only saw one monarch and one red admiral. Several white cabbages and clouded sulfers were still flitting about -- Laura even saw a bright orange clouded sulfer -- but no one would pose for a photograph.

We showed my Dad the Marsh Trail too. Still no butterflies, but Laura got some beautiful shots of the sunset.

We also took some photographs of Laura doing yoga

Laura designed a whole sequence of asanas as part of a big November project for which she is gearing up. I think she will be telling you more about that in her own blog next week.

Yep, that's correct. For all of you fans of Laura the Rainbow Dragon out there, Laura has promised to start using her very own blog and posting regularly, beginning October 1. Until then, you'll need to keep checking in with me to find out what she's been up to and the Polyphagous Dragon to find out what she's been eating.

I am a Super Camper!

2007-09-27T19:41:00.000-04:00

My friend Laura gave me this award because I was such a Super Camper on my very first camping trip!

I had a good time camping with Laura -- especially the parts where I got to rest nice and quietly while Laura took photographs of butterflies and deer -- but I was glad to get back home again too and sleep in our nice big bed. Laura, on the other hand, is already surfing through the Ontario Parks web site, scouting out where we can go next.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 5 - Breaking Camp

2007-09-23T19:25:00.000-04:00

I took one last luxurious roll in the grass of Willow Glade, then we headed back to Oak Grove to pack up camp.

Laura is an expert camper and can tear down camp all by herself when she needs to, but today I was there to help by doing the very important job of supervising. (I am such a super camper!)

Once everything was packed up, I enjoyed my last camp meal (yummy duck kibble - another gift from my fans at Home County) and laid down to rest while we waited for our Mum to come and take us home.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 5 - Time to Go

2007-09-23T19:14:00.000-04:00

Today we are going home.

Today we are having a truly lazy day.
(Laura says it wouldn't be a lazy day if we had been REAL camping.)

This morning Laura and I ate a cold breakfast, then set off for a very short walk. There was a tiny piece of Manning Road and Rondeau Avenue we had not hiked yet which we needed to get in before going home. Then we went to Willow Glade to sit by the water and enjoy our last few hours of camp.

The bay is calm this morning, the sky is clear, and the geese are noisy.

Laura took some photographs of a Great Blue Heron we saw standing in the shallow water.

Here he is again, with a friend:

Then our camera said, "Change the battery pack," and turned itself off.

It must be time to go home!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Last Night

2007-09-23T19:04:00.000-04:00

Laura made the biggest campfire of our whole trip tonight. The winds had died down so she easily got the fire going with only one match and she burned up all the rest of our wood.

"There is something about the last campfire," Laura says.

All of our other fires Laura has put out as soon as she finished cooking over them, but tonight's fire she built up good and hot. Then she cooked herself a yummy dinner of onions and sausage and garlic and potato and parsnips. Then she cleaned up and battened down camp for the night by the fire light. Then she sat down by the fire and watched it slowly die down to embers, lying back to gaze up at the stars. (It was our first cloudless night and, even with all of the lights from Lakeshore Road and the camp buildings and other campers using artificial lights in their camps, there were still far more stars out than we could ever see in London.)

Me, I went to bed straight after dinner and fell asleep to the singing of the crickets and the frogs and the calling of the geese and the occasional loon. I needed my beauty sleep after all of our camping adventures!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Willow Glade

2007-09-23T18:59:00.001-04:00

Before returning to Oak Grove, Laura and I walked all the way around the outside of the campground and we stopped at Willow Glade on Rondeau Bay to sit by the water for a bit there.

Willow Glade isn't a swimming area, so I was allowed to go there. Plus, it is nice and close to our camp, in a pretty, sheltered spot, and, best of all: there are no flies!

The sun was getting low in the sky and Laura enjoyed watching its reflection on the water.

Then we returned to camp for dinner.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Flies!

2007-09-23T18:20:00.000-04:00

Finally the deer finished her lunch and moved on and so did we.

We covered a stretch of Harrison Trail to get to the group camping area. It would be a pretty nice place to camp if you were willing to pay over $40 per night for your site. Secluded in the middle of the peninsula, the group camping area was quiet and sheltered from all sources of artificial light. You would need to trek all of your water into the sight, however.

We heard lots of songbirds on Harrison Trail and saw a cardinal, a blue jay, a sparrow, and some squirrels. At the Visitor Centre we saw a dove, a cute little chipmunk and a couple of people with a little dog. On the homeward bound stretch of Harrison Trail, we saw a whole flock of sparrows nesting in a field of tall blue grass.

Finally, we made it to the dog beach -- and the place was swarming with flies.

Nasty, yucky flies everywhere. Laura tried swatting them and I tried eating them, but there were far too many. We tried moving around the beach to get away from them, but it was no use. Those horrid flies followed us wherever we went and some of them even bit me! That wasn't very nice.

I felt badly because I knew Laura really wanted to be by the water but I just couldn't stand it on the beach with all of those flies, so we set off for Oak Grove. Before I leave our story of the dog beach behind, however, I have a word for all of you doubters and naysayers:

Yes.

Yes I went into the water. I went in and got all four paws wet right over the tops of my toes!

So there!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Celebrity Cervidae

2007-09-23T18:06:00.000-04:00

We walked the long way to the dog beach today because Laura wanted to check out the group camping sites. Good thing that we chose the route that we did because, on our way down Rondeau Road, we saw a deer!

She was right on the side of the road, grazing.

Laura and I approached very slowly and quietly so that the deer wouldn't be frightened of us. The deer watched us cautiously but stood her ground.

Our camera only has a 3x optical zoom, but we were just about getting close enough to take some nice photographs -- when a park ranger came barrelling down the road in one of their big trucks! Of course, the deer disappeared into the woods.

Laura and I thought that was the last we would see of her but, as we approached the spot where she had left the road, we saw her in the underbrush, slowly making her way back towards us.

Laura and I sat down to wait, and we were so good and so quiet that that deer wasn't afraid of us at all. She came to within three metres of where we were sitting and allowed Laura to take many photographs!

If you ask me, I think that deer was enjoying all of the attention!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Staying Warm

2007-09-23T17:59:00.000-04:00

After a little while, Laura went back into the tent and retrieved her jacket and her winter weight tights and got bundled up in them. That did not bode well.

All of our neighbours moved away yesterday. We have the whole street to ourselves. Oak Grove is nice and quiet. No sounds but the squirrels and the blue jay and the wind in the trees. A gentle sunlight filtering down through the oak canopy onto our cosy day bed.

I tried my best to keep Laura warm. I believe that she really did want to give me a nice rest today, but Laura believes that the best way to keep warm is to keep moving, and our campsite is so far away from the water, and the dog beach beckoned...

Laura snuggled into her bed for a little while and read her book while I had a nice nap, but it wasn't long before she snapped the book closed and said, "Well Kendal. How about that beach?"

*SIGH*

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 4 - Lazy Day

2007-09-23T16:45:00.000-04:00

We had already covered all of the hiking trails in Rondeau Park and today was supposed to be our Lazy Day. On some level I knew that doing "whatever we want" wasn't going to translate into spending the entire day in bed, but a puppy can dream.

The day got off to a good start when Laura brought my bed out of the tent and onto the blue tarp so that I could have my breakfast in bed. (Yes, I know I am a spoiled puppy when Laura bakes me homemade cookies for breakfast and brings them to me in bed. What of it?) Then Laura sat down beside me to have her own breakfast. (The garlic had worked so well at keeping the vampires at bay yesterday that Laura had pesto for breakfast again today.) Then Laura brought her bed out of the tent and laid it down on the tarp beside mine. Naturally I gave up my own bed and moved across onto Laura's to warm it up for her.

Laura's bed is so cosy...

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - Spider Web Trail

2007-09-23T16:14:00.001-04:00

After the Deer Enclosure, we hiked our last trail of the park, Black Oak Trail.

The park's guide book calls Black Oak Trail a "pleasant jaunt" and "an excellent trail for watching songbirds". We found it to be neither.

Black Oak Trail was an interesting enough trail, but we didn't see any birds or stop to take any pictures. The lack of birds, again, may have been due to the storm blowing through. The lack of pictures certainly was. The sky had darkened such that the lighting wasn't good for taking photographs with our minimalist equipment, and it had started to rain. Laura loves the rain, as some of you may know, but we were in a thickly forested area and the skies were threatening to rain hard. We wanted to get off the trail before that happened.

As for the "pleasant" part, let me say this: If you are an arachnophobe, Black Oak Trail is not for you!

Laura and I have nothing against spiders per se. We've seen some interesting ones here in Rondeau Park and even taken a few snapshots of them. The problem with Black Oak Trail was that it obviously hadn't been as well travelled by humans in recent days as the other trails had been. I was short enought to pass beneath most of the spider webs that crossed the path, but Laura grew tired of constantly breaking them with her face and took to waving a stick up and down in front of her as she walked to clear our passage.

Maybe someday, when it is sunnier and we are well rested and have more time to devote to exploring, Laura and I will give Black Oak Trail another go, but on this trip, we were glad to be rid of it, scrape the spider silk out of our hair and eyes, and head back to Oak Grove.

The winds were still raging when we made it back to camp, so Laura didn't even attempt to start a fire. We had a cold dinner, Laura taking her pesto with whole wheat pita bread and Lancashire cheese, and went to bed.

The rain clouds blew over quickly but the high winds continued to rage well into the night and long after we had fallen asleep.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - Secret Trail

2007-09-23T16:03:00.000-04:00

On Bennett Avenue, on route to Black Oak Trail, we saw a raccoon crossing the road. We also saw another trail -- one that isn't marked on the map!

Of course, we had to hike it.

The Deer Enclosure Trail is just a short little walk into the woods and around the perimeter of the deer enclosure.

We didn't see any deer -- which is actually the point! The deer enclosure doesn't enclose deer -- it keeps them out.

What it does enclose is a small patch of Carolinian forest on which deer have not been allowed to graze since 1978. The Rondeau peninsula has a higher population of deer than the forest there can sustainably support. Inside the deer enclosure, the forest is regenerating and the area is thick with bushes and sapplings. Outside the enclosure, the forest has been overgrazed and much of the undergrowth is just grasses and flowers. (The open area didn't look as bad as on the photos on the Deer Enclosure sign, however. We couldn't find recent numbers on the deer population, but it looks as if park management practices have started to bring it under control in recent years.)

Sustainable ecosystems are a delicate and complicated balance!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - Spice Bush Trail

2007-09-23T15:42:00.000-04:00

The Marsh Trail is a super long trail that just ends in the middle of the marsh. There is nowhere to go from there, save hike back along the same path that we took into the marsh, so that's what we did. Before we left the marsh behind, I made sure to have a good roll in the marsh's scrumptious tall grass!

Then we were back at the entrance to the Marsh Trail. The day was still young and we were feeling good, so we decided to hike down to Bennett Avenue and complete the final two trails. (Laura said that if we did all of the trails in two days, we could do whatever we wanted on the next day!)

Spice Bush Trail was pretty with lots of ferns and wildflowers on the forest floor. It was pretty easy to get around that trail too. I think it should be marked as a "barrier free" trail like the Tulip Tree Trail is. My Dad would like this trail.

We didn't see any animals on the Spice Bush Trail, just lots of plants and bugs. (Laura thought the birds may all have taken shelter as a wild storm was blowing up as we hiked this trail.)

None of the bugs bothered us. Even the mosquitos stayed away today! Laura's pesto with lamb and rice meal did the trick! (Laura had her pesto with whole wheat rotini pasta.)

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - Nap Time

2007-09-23T15:22:00.000-04:00

The sun came out along our Marsh Trail journey, and you never would have guessed that a thunder storm had ravaged this peninsula just hours earlier.

Laura and I took a rest on the side of the trail to soak up some rays and rehydrate.

This was the view looking straight up from our resting place:

As we were resting beneath the shade of the tall blue grass, two little frogs came and sat with us for a while.

Back on the trail after our rest, we finally got some good photographs of a Red Admiral.

See how good his camouflage is? With its wings folded up, this Admiral looks just like a bit of tree bark!

Most of these butterfiles were very shy and flew away before Laura could get our camera focussed on them, but this little guy was so friendly, he actually alighted on Laura's shirt!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - The Marsh

2007-09-23T13:15:00.000-04:00

To tell the truth, I would have been happy for today's adventure to have been sleeping in bed, but I knew it was important to Laura to hike all of the trails in Rondeau this week so I went with her.

Laura said we could hike a little more slowly today since we have less ground to cover but, once we got onto the Marsh Trail, there were so many interesting things to see and smell that I soon forgot I was tired.

Before we even got to the trail itself, a huge bird of prey flew overhead. He swooped down so low, right over our heads, I was glad Laura was with me lest that enormous raptor took a fancy to me as a nice light morning snack!

Walking along Water Street, we were escorted by a friendly monarch butterfly. Then, on the trail itself, more Monarchs as well as Cabbage Whites, Clouded Sulfurs, Pearl Crescents

and Red Admirals.

We saw lots of birds too: little brown birds, a whole flock of black birds resting in the bullrushes, a couple of swallow-tailed birds near the north end of the marsh, more raptors circling overhead

(watch out little brown birds!) and lots of dragon flies. We saw bullrushes and tall blue grass and thickets of raspberry canes and grape vines and those white berry bushes,

pretty orange flowers, golden rod, tiny white asters, tiny buds of purple, and white & pink morning glories.

We hiked along a couple of boardwalks out into the marsh. At the end of one there was this cute little shelter, just the right size for me! It sure was nice of the Rondeau Park people to build this for me!

At the end of the other boardwalk there was a lookout tower into which we climbed. We could see water and marsh for miles around from up there, and it was super windy!

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Laura really liked it up in the Marsh Trail Tower, looking out over Rondeau Bay, the wind in her hair -- but she said she was glad she wasn't out on the water in a canoe that day!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 3 - Sleeping In

2007-09-23T13:05:00.000-04:00

Yesterday Laura and I put in a good days work and went to bed straight after supper.

There was a major storm last night with rain and thunder and lightening that lit up the whole sky, but Laura said not to worry. She said our tent is a good tent. It would withstand the storm. And Laura was right. We woke up this morning warm and dry and well rested. Still, I pulled princess privilege and stayed in bed while Laura made breakfast.

(I know that princesses need to look after their people, but I walked as far yesterday on my short little legs as Laura did on her great big tall legs, so think how many more steps that was for me! I think I was entitled to a little lie-in this morning!)

Laura was a long time about making breakfast. (I didn't mind because I was enjoying Laura's bed.) It was so windy this morning, even the fire-starter stick blew out -- three times! Laura was determined to have her omelette however. (Who can blame her? Onions, garlic, Oktoberfest sausage, red pepper, hot pepper & feta cheese. Yummmm!)

Finally breakfast was cooked and eaten and the kitchen cleaned up and Laura was back in the tent asking if I was ready for today's adventures.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Homeward Bound

2007-09-23T12:37:00.000-04:00

After resting up at the beach, Laura and I walked back to the junction of South Point Trail and Harrison Trail and started the trek back to camp along Harrison. When we got to the Visitor Centre, we took a short detour for the loop around Tulip Tree Trail. (Laura thought we might as well do it today, since we were already in the neighbourhood.)

We saw the nesting boxes of Rondeau's famous prothonotary warblers along the Tulip Tree Trail, but the tenants were not at home. We did see a person on the Tulip Tree Trail, however -- our first in our trail travels this week! -- and two more on the northern half of Harrison Trail.

What else did we see on our journey's today?

Two chipmunks, three black squirrels, a bird of prey (not sure what type, it flew overhead and was lost quickly in the canopy of trees, but it was dark and massive and beating its wings loudly -- we think burdened down with a fresh catch) and an itsy bitsy little snake (black with yellow stripes along its sides and not more than 18 inches long, this little critter crossed our path on Harrison Trail).

We also saw lots of flies today, and mosquitos. Did I mention the mosquitos? The trails were swarming with them and Laura and I apparently the only suitable blood supplies in sight. Laura says we clearly have not been consuming enough garlic lately. She is making us pesto for dinner.

When we finally made it back to Oak Grove (that's the name Laura has given to our camp) we had hiked 24kms! That's the farthest I have ever walked in one day and I was tired! Laura stretched out a blue tarp on the ground in the middle of Oak Grove and put my bed on it for me. Then I rested and listened to the blue jays causing a ruckus overhead while Laura started the fire.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Private Beach

2007-09-23T12:19:00.000-04:00

The end of South Point Trail meets up with the end of Harrison Trail, but Laura and I walked out along Lakeshore Road for a bit so we could return to the dog beach.

It's nice having this little beach all to ourselves -- kind of like having our own private beach in Rondeau Park!

There are fewer flies here than at South Point Beach too. (Perhaps it was the dead fish?)

Laura and I stopped for a rest and some lunch. Laura had yummy apple spice cake that she made with apples from our Mum and Dad's tree, and I had special all natural veal treats that the nice people at Home County Folk Festival gave to me. (When you are a rock star people feed you all kinds of wonderful things!)

Laura exchanged the memory card in our camera while we were sitting on the beach and I dug out a nice cool spot for a nap in the sand.

We saw lots of gulls

some cormorants

cute little brown and white sanderlings that ran along the edge of the beach

and some white terns with bright orange beaks, black wing tips and faces, and black under their tails. The beaks were noticeable because these birds flew with them pointing straight down. (Fishing, Laura thought.)

A small brown butterfly came to visit us while we were lying in the sand but it was camera shy and flew away when Laura picked up her equipment.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Fields of Gold

2007-09-23T11:52:00.000-04:00

On the back end of South Point Trail we passed through some tall reeds and blue grasses.

Look up

Look WAY up!

Then we walked through fields of gold...

and orange!

The monarchs loved these beautiful woodland sunflowers and goldenrod.

A pretty little Clouded Sulfur paused long enough to have its picture taken

as did this delicate Cabbage White

Then Laura's camera ran out of memory!

She was worried about the batteries running out on us because they weren't fully charged when we left home and Laura only has the one set for this camera, but the first thing to go was the memory card. On our first full day too!

Fortunately, Laura had brought along a spare memory card. It needed wiping, however, so we chewed up some more battery power doing that, but we'll hopefully be able to squeeze out a few more pics for you before the juice runs out.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Carrion-Eating Lepidoptera

2007-09-15T18:57:00.000-04:00

At the very south point of the trail we came to a beach.

There were no "no dogs" signs there, and no one was swimming, so Laura and I sat on the beach for a while and watched the water and the birds. Laura took off her shoes and walked in the water, and I had a nice drink.

It was on the South Point Beach that we saw our first monarch. They are supposed to be in the midst of a big migration that passes through Rondeau park this week, but we only saw the one specimen at South Point today. He hung around a long time so that Laura was able to snap some photographs.

Unfortunately, this butterfly was overly-enamoured with the rotting carcass of a beached fish, so the backdrop to these shots is none too pretty.

Turning her camera sights elsewhere, Laura snapped a photograph of this magnificent heron soaring overhead:

Laura and I rested on the South Point Beach for a little while -- but not for too long. We managed to leave the mosquitos behind in the woods, but the beach was swarming with flies which kept trying to eat me. (I attempted to return the gesture, but there were just too many of them.) So, shoes and socks back on and pant legs rolled down again and we were back on the trail.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Rondeau Road Life

2007-09-15T18:40:00.000-04:00

South Point Trail is not only the longest trail at Rondeau but also the furthest from our camp. We had to walk 4.5km down Rondeau Road just to get to the start of the trail. It was a nice walk though, down a beautiful tree-lined boulevard. This pretty Black Swallowtail butterfly escorted us part of the way down Rondeau Road and obligingly alighted on a nearby leaf when Laura asked if we could take its photograph.

We saw lots of flowers along the side of the road. White asters and purple asters and yellow woodland sunflowers. Thistles taller than Laura. Ferns and mosses. Fields of golden rod and thickets of raspberries even larger than the one Laura and I left behind in London. We saw grapes and white berries and red berries and pink berries. Blue bells and pretty orange flowers as well as big orange spiders and tiny orange toadstools.

This fuzzy bumblebee was feasting merrily on pollen from the woodland sunflowers:

On South Point Trail we saw more of all the same plants. Lots of different trees with old grape vines gnarled and twined around their branches. We heard a lot of birds too, and saw some, but they were all moving too quickly to photograph - save for the pair of big birds we saw walking on the path ahead of us -- but they left the path before we could get too close.

We saw a pretty blue butterfly too. He was small and light blue all over but camera shy.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 2 - Breakfast & Plans

2007-09-15T18:28:00.000-04:00

I wasn't so sure about going inside the big dome last night. I thought I would lie down outside the door to be near Laura and keep her safe, but Laura said no, to come on inside, so I did. Turns out it is pretty nice inside the tent. Laura has a big poofy red sleeping bag for her bed and I have my special red travelling bed, so we were cosy and comfy and warm and had a good night's sleep.

This morning, Laura built a fire to cook breakfast. Laura had whole wheat apple pancakes with spicy sausage and maple syrup, and I had one of my favourite peanut butter cookies and some apple which I shared with Laura. Then we gathered some more firewood and returned to camp to plan our day.

There are over 27km of hiking trails in Rondeau Park and Laura and I have three days to cover all of them. They're not all loops, so we will need to walk some of them twice to get back to camp, and they don't all start near the campground, so it will be a lot of hiking! We decided to walk the longest trail on our first day.

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 1 - the Dog Beach

2007-09-14T22:54:00.000-04:00

After dinner, Laura and I went for a walk.

I know Laura is making a lot of sacrifices on this trip for me because it is my first time and I'm not ready for REAL CAMPING yet, but one thing Laura is not willing to sacrifice is water. REAL CAMPING, Laura says, must be done on a lakeshore.

Well, Rondeau Provincial Park is on a big peninsula. It is surrounded on three sides by water -- but the camp sites are all in the middle of the peninsula, away from the water! We can hear the waves on Lake Erie from our camp, but we cannot see them. No matter, Laura said, the water is still close by. We can walk to it everyday to sit by it.

The people who make the rules here are mean though. They built many paths to access the waterfront, but they don't allow dogs to go down any of them but one.

Laura says some people are just silly. Dogs are nice. We are friendly and we like to play with our families and some dogs like to swim in the water. And we know not to do our business on your beach towel.

Babies don't know that. They pee in the water and poop in their own clothing, yet they are allowed on the beach and sweet little doggies like me are not!

In all of Rondeau Park there is only one place where dogs are allowed to go with their families to the water's edge, so Laura and I set out to find the "dog beach".

The dog beach is far away from the camp ground. It is 6km from our camp site. It was not marked on any of the park maps and the park staff who we met could not show us where it was and the only signage on the park roads was totally unhelpful. (There is one sign near the entrance to the park which directs people straight down Rondeau Road -- but the dog beach isn't on Rondeau Road and there is no additional signage at any of the places where you would need to turn to get from Rondeau Road to the beach.)

Because the only signage was wrong, Laura and I had to walk 8km to get to the beach. It was dark by the time we got there and it was raining (which made Laura happy, as I'm sure you have guessed) but we made it to the beach! We dipped our paws in Lake Erie and we listened to the waves crashing on the shore.

There were no stars out on account of the rain, so all we could see were the white caps of the breaking waves, but Laura got to have her visit with the lake.

Now that we knew where the dog beach was, we took the direct route - 6km - back to our campsite and went to bed. With our hike to the beach, plus the firewood gathering expedition, we hiked 15km today!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 1 - Making Camp

2007-09-14T22:38:00.000-04:00

I was happy that everyone came in the van with us because I like the whole family to be together but, once we got to our camp site, Laura unloaded all of our gear and then Mummy and Daddy drove away. I guess my Mum doesn't like camping because there are BUGS here!

Anyhow... I was still happy because I got to stay with Laura. I wasn't really sure what was going on because I have never been camping before, but Laura really loves camping so I knew it must be something good.

The first part to camping - after you get to your camp site, which is supposed to take more work that it did today - is to clear all of the acorns and rocks and twigs from a big piece of ground. Then you errect a big dome on that spot. (Laura says that, if we were REAL CAMPING, it would be a smaller dome, but, since we are cheating this week, she brought her big "folk festival tent".)

After you erect your "tent", you roll out your bed inside your tent. Then, if there is room, you can put your clothes in the tent too. Toothpaste and soap and food all stay outside the tent. Laura put ours on a picnic table in the big red cooler and in a big tote. (Laura says that is cheating too. She says that if we were REALLY CAMPING we would have to put all of our food and other smelly stuff in a bag and hang the bag from a tree.)

Next, you have to gather firewood. Laura and I went for a walk to a house where there was a lady who gave us a big bag of firewood in exchange for a piece of paper. Laura said that was cheating too -- but the lady said I was "the most beautiful dog" so I decided I don't mind all of this cheating so much.

After gathering firewood it was time to have our dinner. I had kibble with my special candies that keep my coat shiny and beautiful. Laura had curried chicken salad and apple spice cake. I licked my bowl clean and then I helped Laura to wash her dishes too. I am a good camper!

Kendal's First Camping Adventure - Day 1 - Preparations

2007-09-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

Laura was busy in the kitchen today.

She baked Apple Spice Cake and a batch of my favourite cookies. Then she started putting various food stuffs into little pots and packing them into a big red cooler.

"Today we are going camping!" Laura said.

Laura brought some strange things up from the basement and she packed some clothes into a big yellow bag. It's worrisome when Laura packs clothes into anything other than her wardrobe because packing clothes into bags means that Laura is going away and I don't like it when Laura goes away, but today Laura said not to worry. Today we were going on a special adventure -- Laura and I together. Today we were going camping!

Well, Laura says it's not REAL CAMPING. For REAL CAMPING you have to leave your car behind and pack your gear into a canoe and paddle across a big lake then haul your gear on your back across a portage then cross another lake and preferably another portage... and you have to be the only people camped on your lake. If anyone else is on the same lake as you, they're too close.

This isn't that kind of camping.

Today when Laura was finished packing our gear, she loaded it into my Dad's van. I ran and jumped into the van right away to show Laura that I was ready!

The gear took longer than me to pack and my Mum and Dad took longer still but eventually we were all in the van and we set off for Rondeau Provincial Park.

Sparse Blogging

2007-09-14T17:50:00.000-04:00

Apologies for my sparse blogging in recent weeks.

Once Laura and I got thick into the packing up of our old house, it was difficult to get time on the computer.

Once all our furniture was taken away

our house looked empty

very empty

very, very empty

and we didn't have a work station for our computer anymore.

At least we kept this futon:

Moving house is hard work!

Finally, everything was packed (or given away). Laura brought home a big white van and our friend Pam came over and helped her load it up. (I helped by guarding our bedroom while Laura and Pam were packing the van.) Once the van was filled to the roof, Laura and I scrambled in. That van was very high and I had a big jump to get in, but I did it! Then Laura and I were off to our new home...

... where Laura had to turn around and unload everything from the van again -- this time with the help of our Mum and our new neighbour Adrian. Then Laura had to return the van to London, followed by our Mum who drove Laura and the rest of our stuff to our new home in my Daddy's van.

Moving house is a long haul and sometimes feels like a never-ending battle, but Laura is very experienced at it now and she got everything done.

We found a new corner for my nice cushions:

and got to work setting up our new home:

Finally, Laura dug out a corner and set up our computer again:

It was hard to find space for our computer with all of those apples!

There is a big ol' apple tree where we are living now and it rains down thousands of apples every fall. Laura has been making lots of things with apples: apple cider, maple-apple wine, apple juice, apple strudel, apple spice cake, apple egg custard tart - I will let her tell you about all of that. My favourite thing to do with apples is to find a nice big shiny one and share it with my friend Laura!

Once our computer workstation was set up, Laura was monopolizing it to do work for her clients. Then Laura and I went away on a camping adventure. We were away from our computer for four whole days!

Anyhow, we are back home now, resting up from our adventures.

I will post more pictures soon and let you know all about our fabulous camping trip in my next few posts.

Number Six

2007-08-31T12:06:00.000-04:00

Last weekend I moved house for the sixth time.
That's not as many times as Laura, but it's a lot for a little dog like me.
In fact, if you apply the same ratio to moves as one does to time ("dog years" vs. "human years") I HAVE moved house as many times as Laura -- and that is a LOT!

Probably Laura and I will not stay where we are now for very long, so that will mean yet another move soon, but, for now at least, we are someplace safe.

Free Stuff

2007-08-17T17:27:00.000-04:00

I wrote in my last post about how Laura tried to give so much stuff away that the men who came to collect it couldn't fit it all into their truck. What they couldn't take with them, they left out on our lawn so that other people could see it and take what they want. There is some pretty good stuff out there.

Our two big arm chairs, for instance. When the men didn't take those away, I thought that maybe Laura and I could have them back. I love those arm chairs. Whenever Laura has to go out without me, I know that she misses me. When she comes home again, I always sit with her in one of those big chairs so she will know that I missed her too. Also, when my friend Claire comes to visit me, I sit with her in one of those chairs, so that she will know how happy I am to see her. I haven't seen Claire in a really long time, but Laura says that one day she will visit us again, and now, where will we sit?

Laura says we cannot take the chairs back though. They are for someone else now. Maybe they could even be for you!

Would you like a nice comfy arm chair? (One is even a rocking chair!) They are big chairs, so a puppy and her human friend could sit together in one! Plus, they are FREE! You can come by our house and just take them! (If you wanted to pay it forward, you could make a donation for them to a charity that you think is important.)

Our big coffee table is out there too. That coffee table has lots of wonderful energy in it because Laura has served many many feasts to good people around that table. I hope that a good person (with a big room, because it is BIG) will come and take it so it can continue its work of making people happy!

Paying it Forward

2007-08-17T13:11:00.000-04:00

Today two men came to our house with a big truck and they took away most of our stuff. I wasn't too happy about that, but Laura said not to bark at them. She said that she had asked them to come.

Laura gave the men most of our furniture, our TV, VCR, DVD player, bar fridge and over half of her clothes. She gave them so much stuff they couldn't fit it all into their truck! Now our house is almost empty!

This is all part of Laura's Inverse Pay it Forward project.

You all know about Paying it Forward, right? If someone does something good for you, you can "pay back" the favour, "settle the score" so to speak, but that closes the cycle of goodness pretty quickly and all you have is two people who did something nice for one another. If, however, you turn around and find someone else to help, you "pay it forward", and they pay it forward and the person who they help pays it forward, etc. you create this huge chain of people doing good things which can spread all around the world and potentially make our world a better place for everybody!

Well, Laura has some very good people in her life who have done some very nice things for her, but Laura is a good person herself. She is pretty good at paying it forward. What happens, however, when someone does something bad to you?

You don't want to pay back the bad deed - doing so would make you just as bad as the person who hurt you - and you obviously don't want to pay forward something bad. Evil was introduced into the world by the bad deed and, if you believe as Laura does, that we must each one of us "Be the Change" that we want to see in the world, you yourself need to do something to try to counteract that evil.

What can you do?

As Laura and I recently learned, you can co-operate with the police and the Crown Attorney fully and still have no guarantee that the Crown will bring a criminal to justice. You cannot control anyone's behaviour but your own. You must Be the Change!

I ask again, what can YOU do to be that change?

Laura decided that one of the things she could do was not only to pay forward good deeds but also to try to counteract bad deeds with good ones. She made a commitment for the International Day of Peace last year that she would try to turn the tide of hatred into love by doing one good thing for someone for each time that something bad was done to her.

This has been a difficult commitment to fulfil because, as you may know, a lot of bad has happened to Laura in the last year as a result of the actions of Uber Creep. One of those bad things is that we have had to sell our home.

Now we have nowhere to keep most of our belongings and, instead of trying to sell them or rent a storage locker for them, Laura decided that she could implement an Inverse Pay it Forward plan by giving them away.

The men who took our stuff this morning will sell it to people who need it but cannot afford to pay for new stuff, and then they will give the profits from those sales to charity. That way, lots of people can be helped by us and Laura and I will be okay because we still have each other.

Booner

2007-08-15T11:50:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I chased the orange cat!

Laura and I were sitting outside, visiting with our neighbours (our nice neighbours - not the SCWs) and along came Booner. Sauntered right up to us, like he was entitled.

Laura said I should be nice to Booner because he is a nice cat and he is our next-door neighbour, but I know that cat. I know that he is secretly in love with Laura and he thinks she is his girlfriend. But she's not! Laura is MY friend! That Booner cat, though -- he would have snuggled right up to Laura, I just know it, and I couldn't let that happen, so I chased him off.

You're not Laura's type you Booner cat, you. Laura is MY girl!

Guitar Portrait

2007-08-15T11:41:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are the pics of Laura and I posing with the famous guitar.

Photos are by Doug Nicholson/Six String Nation.

Rain Dancing

2007-08-10T15:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday, Laura made me go for a walk in the rain.

This isn't unusual.

Laura likes rain, and we have had some awfully hot weather lately, and somedays the only times it's been cool enough to go for a walk have been when it was raining. I can appreciate that, and, while I'm not as wild about being wet as Laura is, I don't much mind a gentle mist to keep me cool on a summer's day. Sometimes Laura can go a bit overboard though.

Take last Thursday, for instance:

The sky had been making loud grumbly noises for quite some time, and Laura was very excited.

"Rains-a-coming," she said, gleefully.

Sure enough, the rains did come:

Laura took off her shoes so she could dance in the rain:

I danced with her for a little while, but it was raining VERY HARD!

The rain did help to cool us off.

And it made everything smell so good:

But I prefered to watch Laura dance from the safety of our covered porch:

So I shook myself dry:

Come on Laura! It's time to go in now.

Okay Laura. Very funny. Let me in now please.

All too soon, the rain dancing fun ended -- but I still had fun inside with my towel!

(Sometimes you have to pose in these silly outfits to amuse your human.)

Mangled Mail

2007-08-09T17:25:00.000-04:00

Apologies to anyone who has attempted to contact me or Laura in the last 24 hours and had your email unceremoniously bounced back to you. Our ISP, without warning or provocation, cut off forwarding for all of our email aliases yesterday, including mine! They appear to have lost our calendar and address book too!

We didn't even know the aliases had been lost until Laura logged into her email this morning and found no messages from the busiest mailing list to which she subscribes. She has contacted the ISP for help in getting our account restored to its proper functionality, but it's currently looking as though we'll be hunting for a new ISP in the very near future.

Happy Birthday Cheryl!

2007-08-04T23:55:00.000-04:00

Today is our friend Cheryl's birthday.
We cannot visit her on her birthday because she lives far away, so Laura and I made her this picture:

(I think she will like it because I'm in the picture and I am cute!)

Summer Heatwave

2007-08-01T22:51:00.000-04:00

Tonight Laura and I are listening to music by Karyn Ellis because we are stuck in the middle of a summer heatwave!

It's so hot that Laura gave me a massage with an ice pack to help me cool off!

I returned the favour by giving Laura a footbath. (I know that she likes to be wet to stay cool!)

It's so hot in London this week that even our wooden floors aren't all that cool ... but the bathroom floor will do.

"It's too humid to sleep
And I'm too sleepy to move."

"I've got fourteen things on my list of things that I've got to do but I'm not doing any of them..."

Yes Mum, I remembered...

2007-08-01T22:35:00.000-04:00

I have to write this so my Mum won't worry about me.

Everyday I eat special candies with my dinner that Laura gives me. Not the bad kind of candies that some humans eat that rot your teeth, but good candies that help to keep my fur all nice and shiny and soft (so that everyone will want to pet me!).

In the summer, I get to eat an extra special candy - only one per month - that my Mum got for me. It tastes really yummy and it stops nasty, gross parasite things from living on my body and making me sick. Today was the day to eat my special monthly candy -- so, yes Mum, I remembered!

Thank you!

But I'm a CUTE Drooly Monster!

2007-07-30T20:28:00.000-04:00

I didn't mean to drool on the furniture, really I didn't. What did you expect though? Laura had apple for her dinner.

Specifically, Laura cut up an apple and put it on her dinner plate, all nice and fresh and appley-smelling. Then she proceded to prepare some other food, which she piled onto the same plate. Then she sat down to eat her dinner right in front of me!

Yes, it's true that I had already eaten my kibble. But I LOVE apples! I love them almost as much as I love peanut butter cookies. Laura knows this and she ALWAYS shares her apples with me!

Well, tonight, she sat down with her plate full of food and a tall glasss of minted lemonade and she proceded to sip her drink and eat all of the other food first!

Laura, you see, is of the inclination to save the best until last.

I am more apt to follow the philosophy, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow... Well, who really cares what happens tomorrow if today there's feasting and drinking and merriment to be had!"

So there was Laura, saving the best until last. And there was I, sitting ever so quietly and trying oh so hard to be good. But that apple looked SO GOOD! And it smelled... Oh!

Finally it came to be time to enjoy that shiny green apple together. It tasted so yummy and I was so happy that Laura is my friend and shares her apples with me -- but Laura wasn't so impressed that a little puddle of drool was left on the futon after our feasting.

I say it serves her right for making me wait for that apple for so long. (And, I know that Laura secretly loves sharing her apples with me, even when she pretends to be grossed out by the aftermath.)