Yoga Assistant

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

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

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

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

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

New Bed

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

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.