It’s getting cooler

The weather isn’t quite as warm now, and it looks like this in the back yard.

Just like dogs, our trees are shedding. They’re turning all their leaves brown and dropping them on the ground. The leaves are crackly and crunchy when you step on them.

For some reason, the humans are not content to let the crunchy leaves stay on the ground. No. 2 rakes them up into big piles. Then the Klingons come along and jump into the piles and scatter them around again. This is fun to watch, except that the colors of the Klingons and the colors of the leaves are about the same, so you have to keep a wary eye out in case of sneak attack.

When they’ve had their fun, they lay around and don’t even help make the piles again.

No. 2 goes away sometimes. I don’t like this. The first clue is when the suitcase comes out.

All of us help him pack. The way we do it is, No. 2 puts the suitcase on the bed. The Klingons get into the suitcase. No. 1 calls out “Socks, underwear, shirts, pants!” No. 2 yells “Check!” I watch with a sinking feeling in my stomach. It’s good to have a human and a spare.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: September 8th, 2009

Our walks after dinner

When it’s warm outside, we go for a walk after dinner. The whole pack goes… me, the humans, and all three of the Klingons. The way we do it is, one of the humans says “Walk!” and we all get ready.

Did you say walk? Now? It's time?

I get my leash on and we all gather in the side yard. Then we go up the road a little ways and turn left. The Klingons are slow, so we have to wait until they all catch up. Then we go down a hill. We stop and look out across a field to an old house where nobody has lived for a long time.

No. 1 says this is her favorite view of all.

Then the funnest part. We go into the woods! There’s a little path there and we all walk through. I stay on the path but the Klingons take the high roads.

At the end of the path we come out behind a house where there’s never anybody there, and my bestest Klingon goes and rolls and flips in a patch of dust. I really don’t know why she enjoys this but I guess it takes all kinds.

Then it’s a race to the finish. No. 2 goes out ahead and calls the race as the Klingons head toward home. I must say that they do not understand the concept of a race, because they go in fits and starts, and they stop to look behind them all the time.

One time on the way home I walked through a patch of weeds, and they grabbed me! I was stuck! Couldn’t move forward, couldn’t move backward. The humans rescued me from these grabby plants and carried me home. “What a mess!” I heard. They took a long time to pick a whole bunch of little bitty green sticky things out of my coat. I heard No. 1 exclaim, “213!” That was not that much fun.

Woofs,
Willie

[No. 1 here... the "house where where there's never anybody there" is a non-residential frat house down the street from us in Gambier, Ohio, a tiny academic town in central Ohio, home to Kenyon College.

No. 2 and I cherished our walks with Willie and the cats. The neighbors always marveled to see three cats walking with us. In fact, they were known as "The Famous Gambier Walking Cats."]

Edited: September 4th, 2009

My fringes are here!

The humans kept talking about “that awkward gangly stage.” I don’t know what that meant, but apparently I’m over it now. My ear fringes have grown out!

A papillon’s pride and joy are his fringes. We’re named for butterflies, you know, and our ears look like big fluffy wings.

They’ve also stopped referring to a “pipe cleaner” when talking about my tail. Now it’s long and fluffy too, and swishes all over the place when I wag it.

No. 1 has been teaching me things. I know lots of words and what I’m supposed to do when the humans say them. Each word also has a signal, and I know those too! Let me tell you, this is a great way to get treats. The way we do it is, the humans say the word or make the signal, I do the thing, and I get a treat! What a racket.

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: August 21st, 2009

Walking with the pack

Now the white stuff has gone away and it’s a little warmer out. I’ve started going outside more, walking with my pack. That is, the core pack… the humans. (The Klingons are optional.)

I enjoy the walks. Dogs love walking. The way it should be on walks is, that both the humans are near me and I can see them. This is important. We all need to be together.

Hurry up, No. 2. You're lagging!

Woofs,
Willie

Edited: August 18th, 2009