La De Da Days

No, I am not ready to pounce and attack. I am stretching and yawning. That is how I have been feeling these past few days. Just taking it easy, going at a slower pace. But I have noticed something strange. The past three nights I have seen only one dog during my evening walks. One dog! Is there a doggie convention going on that I don't know about? Has the invasion of the doggie snatchers occurred? Where did all the doggies go? Humpf. If it did occur, they forgot a dog. The mean dog behind the fence. He came home last night. I have not heard him for over a week so I was hoping he moved. But he is back. He was barking last night and it made me nervous. He must have been vacation or something, or maybe the cat got his tongue and then gave it back. Oh well. Just as long as he does not break through the fence again I will be ok. It is smokey here. I guess there are some forest fires in some mountains near here and the smoke has been drifting this way. I have never been in forest fire smoke. It looks hazy, and it blocks the sun. K went swimming in the pool yesterday for a little bit. I laid by the pool with my front paws hanging over the edge, almost touching the water but not quite. I am not a pool dog. I mean, I have an image to uphold, I think, don't I? What would all my Northern brethren think if they saw me lounging in a pool while they are out pulling sleds through the Great White North? Or Alaska? My ears twitch just thinking of the sorts of howls and growls I would be hearing from them. I fall to the submissive pose just thinking about it. I'm just sayin'...

Porgy Smorgasbord

That's me trying to take Porgy's cracker away from him. If I watch him long enough when he is eating he usually relents and drops for me whatever it is that he is eating. Good Porgy! I trained him well! I know Porgy is hard to see against the green of the grass but that is his camouflage and it protects him from bad birds and squirrels. This was last summer at our home in the Midwest, in the country. Porgy hangs out outside when the weather is warm enough and he even has a little tree he sits in that K calls "the Porgy tree." Sometimes when he is sitting in his tree amongst the leaves you can't see him. K has stood outside looking all around the tree calling for Porgy then all of a sudden she sees him just sitting there. It is funny! His wings are clipped - poor Porgy! - so he can't fly away. Well, that's the idea, anyway. Sometimes Porgy realizes his wings are back and he will fly short distances, and sometimes far distances. Before I joined the family Porgy had flown away a few times. The longest he was gone was for three days, then they found him in a tree. He survived a severe Midwestern storm while he was gone for those three days. Pretty scary! Porgy has been following me all over the place ever since the two kids of the relative we are house-animal sitting for left. Porgy had to be kept in the bedroom while they were here and K only brought him out a few times to sit outside with us. So Porgy was really lonely and missing me a lot. When they left K let Porgy have his freedom again so he has been following me every where I go. I love Porgy but sometimes I get annoyed when he follows me, especially when I am trying to sleep. But it is nice to have such a good friend. Porgy is my best bird buddy. I hope Porgy does not fly away again, I would really miss him. K makes up nicknames for her pets. She calls Porgy, "Porgy Smorgasbord." I like it better than my nickname, "Suka Pants." I don't wear pants! But "Suka Your Royal Alpha Dog Highness" would be a nickname I could get used too. I'm just sayin'...

Sizzling

I'm melting! OK, not really. I guess only wicked witches melt, and I am not a wicked witch. But it sure felt like I was melting. It was 106 degrees yesterday. Ouch. I stayed inside most of the day. I even took my evening walk late and I still got overheated. Blah. Today was much better, only up to 90 degrees, so I took my afternoon nap outside in the shade. I wonder if this is what I have to look forward too the rest of the summer? Oh well, at least now that the days are going to get shorter the cool evening breeze will start coming sooner. Don't get me wrong, I love the sun! Sunshine makes me happy! But I like the sun better when there is lots of snow on the ground for me to roll around in! K said we may be able to move back North when this house-animal sitting gig is done. "We will see" she said. I hope she sees things my way because if we continue to live in these hot states I will be Baked Alaskan Malamute. I'm just sayin'...

Sunny Summer Solstice

Happy Summer Solstice! Summer is certainly here where I live. The past week it has been in the 90s and 100s. I am hot. I sleep most of the day and evening in the house because it is too hot outside. I have been walking into the pond every morning during my walk just to cool my paws and legs down. Lucky for me, though, the nights get nice and cool here, so that helps to perk me back up. All this heat has made me reminiscent of my times in the snow, so I posted a picture of Sylvius and me in the snow back home. Boy that would feel good right now to be laying down in the snow! I love the snow! I miss the snow. Just the other day during my morning walk a little human boy pointed at me and said, "Look mom! A snow dog!" I thought it was funny that such a little human in this area would know that I am a "snow dog." At least thinking of snow gives me something to look forward too. The good news is the two kids of the relative we are house-sitting for have left so the computer is mine again. Yeah! OK, it is K's too. But I get to post more often again and I am now able to go sniffing out all my new doggie friends' blogs. I can't wait to see what all my doggie friends have been up to. Hopefully staying cooler than me! Anyway, one of the kids had left their dinner in the refrigerator. It was pasta with chicken. So tonight K gave me and Ginger the leftovers, and even the cat Thicket got two chunks of chicken. That's not fair. Cats should not get chicken, only us dogs. Anyway, it was really good. I chowed mine down really fast! Dare I say the chicken tasted almost as good as bunnies? K gave it to us because she is a vegetarian and won't eat any animal. That is good because she is still unemployed so if she gets low on food at least I know I am safe. But maybe I can trick her into eating cat. I'm just sayin'...

WOOF-OUT!

This is a bit late in coming, but I wanted to give a big WOOF-OUT to Dogs With Blogs (DWB)! They can be found here: http://www.dogswithblogs.com.au/ They are a great resource for all things dog, so please visit them and all the wonderful dogs they support. DWB accepted my blog and I am so excited! Because of DWB I have been meeting lots of interesting, smart, and funny doggies. It is almost like being at the dog park, except we can't play. It is exciting to see so many smart dogs stealing time at the computer to blog rather than napping. I didn't know so many of us canines had become so technologically savvy! Just goes to show you that once again us canines have adapted to the human way. I am number 897 on DWB, so now 897 is my lucky number. I wonder, is there a dog lottery? I can play 897 in the dog lottery and if I win, I can build my dream dog house with a jacuzzi tub. Then after a long day of walking with K and playing in the dog park, I can relax in my specially designed bone-shaped jacuzzi tub while nibbling on peanut-butter covered bunnies. I'm just sayin'...

Miss Me Blind

I must apologize for my lack of presence lately. The two oldest kids of the relative we are house-animal sitting for came home the other day since college has ended and they will be here for the next week. There is only one computer in the house and they have been using it a lot. When they are not on the computer, K grabs some time on it to job hunt. I am the animal at the bottom of the totem pole, so to speak, so I get the computer last. Needless to say, it has been hard for me to get time on the computer to blog. But please keep visiting me! I will try to blog as much as I can while they are here, but I may only have time to blog short posts. I am also very excited about all my new friends who have been making comments to me, and I am sorry I have not been able to respond or visit all of your blogs. I will though, as soon as I can have the computer back. So please, don't you forget about me. I'll be back! Hey, I wasn't born in the 80s, K is making me put in all these 80s references. She's the dancing queen. Ooops, that is a 70s reference. Hey, how did I know that? I am just a ball of confusion lately. I'm just sayin'...

Toys

I miss my toys! I left all my toys in a crate at the house we just moved from, where Silvius is now living, in the Midwest. My toys got accidentally left behind in our hurry to come here for this house-animal sitting gig. I think K just forgot about my toys since she had so much on her mind. She had to decide between two job offers in two different states, or this gig, in yet another state, and K ended up choosing this house-animal sitting gig to help out her relative. K told me that as soon as she finds a job and starts working she will take me to a pet store to pick out a toy or two. I can't wait! But until then, I have found a surrogate toy. I call him my mangled squirrel. Remember when I told you how, since moving here, I have been finding lots of things on my walks? (post dated 14 May) Well, the other morning during our walk I found a toy squirrel, except this toy squirrel was ripped open and all of his stuffing was gone, so he is basically just a furry shell of his former self. I don't care, though, he is a fun toy! As we walked home after finding mangled squirrel, K would throw him and I would run and grab him. That was fun! Yesterday afternoon I fell asleep with him next to me but when I woke up I dropped him in the pool. K was looking all over for him last night and she finally saw him in the pool, so she rescued him and threw him in the washer. Now mangled squirrel is all clean. A clean, mangled, floppy furry mess! Actually, with my fur still falling out in clumps from shedding, I kind-of look like a floppy furry mess too! I'm just sayin'...

Recycled

Ok, ok, I know I have already posted this picture but my analog human, K, does not have a digital camera so I am waiting for some new pictures of me that a relative is sending. So until I receive those, I decided to recycle this picture of me taken last month. I am looking toward the area where the mean dog behind the fence broke in an attacked me. That still scares me. He was barking a bit yesterday but at least K was outside with me at the time so I did not feel as nervous. We are waiting to find out how long we will be here house-animal sitting. K's relative may come home as early as August or as late as December. I don't much like it here, especially since that mean dog behind the fence attacked me, so I would be happy to leave by August. But we are making the best of it. K is still looking for a job but took today off from job hunting to swim a bit since it was hot and the water was nice. I won't go in the water of the pool, but I do jump into the pond that we walk around every morning. The pond water smells, but it cools me off. A few humans think I smell right now. If I do, which I don't think I do, it could be the odor from the stinky pond water. That and the fact I am still shedding like crazy, leaving clumps of fur everywhere. Maybe someone should collect all my fur droppings and knit sweaters. Suka sweaters! And Suka socks! And Suka scarves! Everyone else is recycling, so shouldn't my discarded fur be recycled too? I'm just sayin'...

Lollygagging Suka

What does "lollygagging" mean? On our walk this evening K told me to stop lollygagging. Funny word! She said it after I had stopped for the hundredth time (or so it seemed) to sniff at something unseen by the human eye. I do that a lot. I will stop and sniff at the ground, at trash cans, at trees, at posts, basically at anything that is sniffable. Sometimes I just do it a few times during our walks, other times, like tonight, I stop every few feet. I think K gets impatient with me, but hey, it is my walk so I will take my time! K's previous dog, who passed away in 2003 and is now in doggy heaven, used to also stop a lot. A lot more than me from what I have heard. He was part Australian Shepherd and part Malamute (yeah Malamutes!) and it was in his blood to be aware of his surroundings. He had an amazing nose on him. His nickname was "Nosey Bozie" because his nose was in everything. Funny. My nickname is "Suka Pants." I don't get it. I need a better nickname. Tell K to give me a better nickname. I don't wear pants! Anyway, K said Nosey Bozie should have been a search and rescue dog because he had such an incredible sense of smell. Too bad he wasn't. I am sure he would have been able to find lost people easily. Just like a human, when a dog has a gift you should use it. Anyway, I don't wear pants! I'm just sayin'...

Fast Suka, Sweet Suka

Yesterday during our morning walk a human woman stopped K and asked her if my name was "Suka." K told her yes. The woman told K that her relative has a dog named "Suka" but is a female dog. Hey! Do I have a girls name? Anyway, the woman told K that her dog sitter had been telling her all about me (I wonder which human that was? I have met so many since moving here I just can't remember them all). She also told K that "Suka" means "sweet" in Hungarian. So now I know three different meanings of my name: "Suka" means "fast" in Eskimo, "very fast" in Ethiopian, and "sweet" in Hungarian. Pretty nifty! I know I am fast, but now I can honestly say I am sweet too! Then during our evening walk we passed three human males sitting on a bench. As we walked by one of the males said, "now that is a good looking dog." I felt so proud! I like when humans recognize me, and I like it even better when they stop to pet me. Don't worry, I will not let all these compliments get to my head. I see cool looking dogs all the time and I think every dog is spectacular and beautiful, even the mean dog behind the fence. It is not his fault he is mean, he probably ended up with a bad human who taught him bad manners, or worse, hurt him. So even though I am still nervous about the mean dog behind the fence, I think he was once a great dog with great potential. And I am not just saying that hoping someone will tell him what I wrote and he will become my friend and stop prowling by the fence growling and barking. I mean what I say and I mean what I howl. And "Suka" is not a girls name. It's a name for great looking dogs who are fast and sweet. And not afraid of mean dogs behind fences. Well, maybe just a little afraid. I'm just sayin'...