De Do Do Do, De Da Da Da

De do do do, de da da da is all I want to say to K! Don't think me unkind, but K has been busy interviewing for jobs so I have been neglected these past few days, and it makes me rather sad. I know she has to find work so I can get treats and new toys, but when she is busy or not around I get pretty lonely. Oh sure, I have Porgy, but he can't run and play. And Ginger is too frail and weak to play. And Thicket the cat, is, well, a cat. And Thicket does not like me, he runs when he sees me. Silly Thicket! Just because I chase him and jump at him doesn't mean I am going to eat him. Although he does look tasty. Anyway, I thought I would blog with all my animal friends and share some of my recent observations and thoughts. This is what I started to write, "8ik7iuopui67yh5u6," but K came in the room and put a stop to it and would not let me finish. I don't understand why, I thought what I wrote was pretty eloquent, and I had more such thoughts to convey. But K said it was too complicated and deep and no one would be interested. Well, when she goes off on her next interview perhaps I can finish what I started. This is my blog and I feel I should be able to write when I want and what I want. Power to the Puppies! OK, I am not really a puppy, but it sounds good. But since K does happen to be the leader of the Pack I suppose I need to obey her. Leader smeader, doesn't being an Alpha male dog have any ranking? I'm just sayin'...

Kewl For Cats

Wow! This is the cat's meow! I am so excited I have been doing the stray cat strut! I have received my second award for my first blog! This kewl and fun award has been presented to me by that wonderfully wacky, adventurous, and clever kitty Huffle Mawson. Thank you Huffle Mawson! Huffle Mawson comes from the land down under (that would be Australia). Hey, do any animals come from the land up over? Just sayin'... Anyway, I have prepared another speech. Ah-hem….I am very honored to have received the kewl and classy C-squared award. I could not have achieved this highpoint without some amazing furry, feathery, and scaly animals, so let me start by thanking my parents, for bringing me into this world, and my siblings, who I am sure we had some fun times playing. Of course a huge thanks to my Pack - my human K, Porgy, Silvius, and Kitty. We are a rag tag Pack of misfits but we have lots of exciting adventures and fun times. OK, why is that music playing? I am not done - I just got started! Grrrrr....To keep the integrity of the award it has been suggested by its creator, Huffle Mawson, that each recipient should "feel free to share with another five bloggers." I would like to humbly ask Huffle Mawson if it is ok for me to display the kewl and classy C-squared award but hold off on passing it along to five others. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have not been able to socialize that much so choosing five animal bloggers will be a bit difficult for me at this time. Although I have visited many wonderful animal blogs and think all of them are unique and special in their own way, I would like to ask for an extension of time so that I can put more thought into my choices. I was hoping for maybe a couple weeks or so? Please Huffle Mawson? If not, I understand and I will go bury the award in the back yard and bring it out when I am ready with my list of five further recipients. I await your response Huffle Mawson. In the meantime, I'm going to go slink down the alley and look for a fight while howling to the moonlight on this hot summer night. I'm just sayin'... UPDATE: Huffle Mawson, Explorer Cat has graciously said I could display the Cool Cat award and bestow the award on others of my chosing at a later date. Woof Huffle Mawson!!

And The Award Goes To...

I have received my first award for my first blog. It was awarded to me courtesy of my good friend Charlie Daniels, that wonderfully funny and interesting doggy who comes from a land down under (that would be Australia). Thank you Charlie Daniels! Ah-hem….I am very honored to have received such a beautiful award. I would like to start by thanking my parents, for bringing me into this world, and my siblings, who I am sure we had fun times playing. I want to thank my Pack - my human K, Porgy, Silvius, and Kitty. We may be a rag tag Pack but we have lots of exciting adventures and fun times. I would also like to thank my agent...wait, I don't have an agent, do I. Hey, why is that music playing? I have a lot more furry, feathery, and scaly animals to thank! Stop the music! Grrrrr....OK, on to business. As a condition of accepting this award, and in honoring the award, there are five conditions that I have to follow:

1. Add the logo of the award to my blog. Arf!
2. Add a link to the person who awarded it to me. Arf!
3. Nominate at least seven other blogs. Arf!
4. Add links to those blogs on my blog. Arf!
5. Leave a message for my nominees on their blogs. Arf!

Seven is a lot of blogs to pick, especially for a doggy like me who has not had the opportunity to sniff out and meet a lot of the other animal bloggers. K hogs the computer so much doing her own thing that it leaves me little time to socialize. And a dog needs to socialize! Anyway, I don't want my award decision to be construed as a popularity contest. All of the animal blogs that I have sniffed out and visit are fun, creative, interesting, and unique. Some animals are lucky that their humans have a lot more time and resources to devote to creating really dazzling blogs. Other animals, like me, have humans that, well, have little time and no resources so their blogs are more subdued. Hear that K?! Regardless of the look of the blog, I enjoy reading about all the animals and their humans and their lives and their adventures. I don't care if you have no photos, one photo, or lots of photos, I just think it is the cats meow that animals are blogging! Did I really say "cat's meow"? I must have cat kooties on me! Anyway, I sniffed out seven animal blogs and I hereby treat them with the award. Although I have not commented on some of these blogs, and they may not know who I am, I have visited all of them and find them to be unique and enjoyable. Woof! The order listed is random:

1. Huffle Mawson, Explorer Cat
2. Powder-Puff the Wug
3. Kodak, the American Eskimo
4. Skye, of the Moondance Huskies Sled Dog Team
5. Girl Girl Hamster
6. Oorvi
7. Princess Eva and Brice the Handsome

Dough Boy

My human K went to the store today and brought back some sourdough rolls. I have never had sourdough so I was mighty interested in those rolls. K took one out to eat and gave Porgy, Ginger, and I each a piece. Yum! I wanted more! So K took out another one and again gave each of us another piece of her roll. Yummers! Then K had to run an errand and as she left I had my nose on the counter sniffing the bag of sourdough rolls. K was hesitant to leave the house with my nose permanently attached to the counter, but she gave me a look that said 'don't touch those rolls!' and I gave her a look back that said 'hey, I'm a dog! That is what I do!' But when she got back I was napping and since I was a good boy I got yet more of a sourdough roll. Yeah! Sometimes being good does pay off. I just can't keep my eyes off of that bag of sourdough rolls. Why are they so good? And why is this the first time I am ever tasting sourdough rolls? What else is out there that K is hiding from me? Sometimes I think I should focus on my inner-Malamute and use my superior tracking skills to go and find all this great food that I am not privy too. Back in Kansas, where that picture above was taken during a winter day (you can see the wonderful cold fun white snow behind me. I want snow now!), Silvius and I not only got a steak every Friday, but we found some pretty good food on our own - cow feed, deer legs, a dead calf (we didn't do it!), a few dead raccoons and squirrels here and there, and of course, cow dung. Yes, cow dung. An exquisite taste of grains and greens mixed together. And when cow dung is dried out, they are called cow pies, which are round and hard. Then you don't eat them, you play frisbee with them. I'm just sayin'...

Beauty Rest

That's me drinking some water last summer at my home in Kansas. That's Porgy sitting on the rail watching me. Guarding me. Obsessing over me. Yes, K is digging at the bottom of the barrel for photos because she refuses to get a digital camera - she prefers analog - so she is using what few digital photos she can find. So, although my face is blocked by the table it is still me. Porgy spent almost all day outside with me today. I got mad a few times and had to bark at Porgy because he kept sitting next to me when I was trying to sleep and it disturbed me. I need my beauty rest too, you know, just like you humans do. Finally K put Porgy on a chair near me and gave him some millet spray to munch on, so that kept him busy and I was able to sleep. It was not very hot out today so I stayed outside all day. K took a short swim so it was nice to have my human around. And the mean dog behind the fence has been gone almost all month so freedom from the nerves! Well, not total freedom, I still am a little bit nervous about him. Anyway, he was gone all of June, then came back for a few days, and is now gone again. I don't know what is going on with him. Is he gone for good? Or will he return to torment me with his growls and barks and sinister behaviour? Thoughts like that keep me up at night. I have bags under my eyes. That is why my day time sleep is so important to me. Gotta look good for the humans so they will pet me! And love me! OK, I am really not superficial that way. I just like to keep on top of my looks, in a non-superficial way. No, I am not a girly-doggy. I guess you would call me a metro-doggy. I'm just sayin'...

Ouchy On My Leg

I have an ouchy on my leg. K just noticed it today during our morning walk. Seems I have rubbed the fur off above my elbow on my left front leg and there is a small circle of exposed skin. But it is not my fault, there is no place soft to sleep here. The backyard is all stone and cement, except for a tiny square of dried grass which is very uncomfortable. So I only have hard stone surfaces to sleep on. Sometimes I go in K's room at night and sleep on the rug. Lately, though, I have been going into the shower and sleeping in there. It is nice and cool and small, so I consider it my temporary dog house! K has some blankets for me to sleep on but in this heat I have not been using them. I suppose I should start, at least they are soft. I don't like it here. I can't wait until we can leave and get our own place. Porgy does not like it either. He got in trouble today, but it is not his fault. Porgy is just acting out. See, K had to leave Porgy's house/cage in Kansas because it was just too big to bring here to California. It is a giant parrot cage, cast iron. Since K could not bring it she is using a borrowed parakeet cage for Porgy. If you know birds, you know a parakeet is very small so hence, the cage is small. K only puts Porgy in there at night to sleep, but Porgy is missing his home and is starting to act out. He does not have a place to just hang out or go nap in since the cage is too tiny for him. He used to like to hang out in his house and nap and eat and play. So without a house to go to he is starting to act out, so now K is stressing because when she is gone she won't be able to watch him and has no secure place to put him. So, it is not a happy time for us. None of us like it here but we are trying to make the best of it and trying to stay positive. Gosh, these last few posts have been downers. Sorry! Usually I am a very happy doggy! I guess you can't have happy without the sad. Yin/Yang. I learned that from hearing K talk about Bruce Lee. She wants to take martial arts and she wants me to be a Ninja dog. Once I learn the secret Ninja stealth techniques I can sneak up on yummy bunnies and they will never hear me coming. Unless they are Kung Fu bunnies, then they will give me a boot to the head. I'm just sayin'...

Mugshot

That's my mug! That is all my human, K, saw of me before signing the adoption papers. That was four years ago. I have aged. All the black on my head is now a silvery grey. I don't want to age! Anyway, I am having an identity crisis. On Thursday the Vet came to the house to take blood from skinny Ginger. She is 17. They needed blood to do some tests to see how the medicines are working for her. She seems to be doing ok, but since she is old they want to make sure the medicines are not doing more harm to her organs than good. It only took one poke to get her blood. Ginger did not even realize she had been poked until half-way through the blood drawing, so it must have taken a bit for the pain sensor to reach her brain. She suddenly got this look in her eyes that said "hey? what the....oh no you didn't!!" and she jerked her leg. But K had her held down pretty good so the Vet was able to keep the needle in and finish the draw. When he pulled the needle out Ginger tried to bite him, but K was able to deflect Ginger's mouth away from the Vet. Ginger has no strength in her jaw anyway and her teeth are so old that it would have been more like her sucking his hand than biting it. Ginger is funny, and pretty spunky for an elderly doggy! As the Vet was leaving he said I was a very pretty dog. Thank you very much! K told him I might have wolf in me but the Vet said I looked like I had a Great Pyrenees face. K said a Vet in Minneapolis told her the same thing about me. The Vet then told her they have DNA tests for dogs now but wolf DNA is not included so if I had wolf in me that part of my DNA would show up as "unknown." "Unknown." I feel like an unknown sometimes. What am I? I know I am Suka, but what does that mean? OK, it means "fast" in Eskimo language but, oh, never mind! Anyway, K was looking at photos of Wolf-Malamute hybrids (Wolamutes) and they do look like me, but they all have straight ears. My ears are the adorable floppy ears. So then K looked at photos of Great Pyrenees' and I do look like them too, and I am great so the name certainly fits. So what am I? Who am I? How old am I? Where am I from? Do I have siblings out there? My whole identity is wrapped up in me being part Alaskan Malamute with possibly some wolf. What if I am neither? Then what? Is a Suka still a Suka by any other name? I am having an existential breakdown! Since I already mentioned how my color scheme is 2-Tone Ska I think I will just take my bone and head on down to Montego Bay. I'm already lobster red from this past week anyway. I'm just sayin'...

It's A Cruel, Cruel Summer...

105 degrees today. 107 - 115 degrees tomorrow. 104-112 degrees the day after that. And 99-109 degrees the day after that day. I have heard of fried green tomatoes, but is there such a thing as fried black and white malamute? If not, there might be by the end of this week. I'm just sayin'...

Pig Ears

I finally got a treat! I guess it was a human holiday in the USA on Friday, the 4th of July. So humans celebrated by doing odd things like not working, having bar-b-ques, going to the lake, and having fireworks at night. I used to not be afraid of loud noises. Living in the country in the Midwest I heard shotguns all the time and they are loud but they never bothered me. [By the way, that is me last year in the backyard of my house in the Midwest. You can see the creek just behind the tree line.] Also, we would get some pretty loud firecrackers in the country but again, I was never bothered by the noises. But this past Friday, when the fireworks started blowing I went into the house and stayed put. We are currently living just a few blocks from where the fireworks were blown, so my human, K, just stood on a bench in the backyard and had a perfect view of the show. But she watched it alone. None of us animals were going to subject our sensitive ears to those loud booms! Anyway, because it was a holiday K treated Ginger and I to a treat - pig ears! Now, normally I am not a pig ear fan. I used to get pig ears in the Midwest and would just carry them around a few days and then Silvius would take them from me and eat them. But since it has been so long since I have had a treat (I know, I am so deprived!) I ate it all up in one sitting! Ginger ate hers even faster than me! And she is a 17-year-old skinny skinny greyhound! I knew greyhounds could run fast but eat fast too? Anyway, I love pigs. They are pink! How can you not love a pink animal? Pink flamingos rule. As do I. But I'm not pink. I'm more Ska, of the 2 Tone Ska scene. I have the black and white look going on, but just not checkerboard. K was trying for Goth with me, but I have too much white and I was not going to dye my fur. Black eyeliner, maybe, but I draw the line at dyed fur. And a nose ring. I'm just sayin'...

Lost In My Thoughts

Sometimes I tend to get lost in my thoughts. This picture of me was taken a year or so ago at my home in the Midwest and as you can see, I was hanging out on the back deck contemplating life, lost in my thoughts. I tend to do that a lot, because there is a lot to contemplate and think about. I am not your typical Malamute, which makes sense since I am a mix. Hey - "sense since." Try saying that six times fast! Anyway, I am very happy and social for a Malamute. I love people, I love having people pet me, and I love playing with other doggies. I have heard Malamutes tend to be aloof. I suppose I sometimes exhibit aloof behaviour, but that is usually when I am running away off-leash pretending that I don't hear my human calling me. So most of the time I am a pretty happy-go-lucky doggie but I do have my reflective, thoughtful side. I am a complex doggie. I am a multi-dimensional doggie. I am an enigma wrapped in fur. Lately I have been thinking about the dolphins stuck in New Jersey, about eight miles from the ocean, and I wonder if they went there to get away from the deadly sonar blasts from the Navy submarines. I hope they are ok and I wish those submarines would stop blasting sonar. I love dolphins. In fact, I feel very fondly toward all the beautiful sea creatures. Whale songs make me misty eyed. Should I tell you that? I don't want my Northern brethren heading down here to howl and growl at me. But I suppose I could just tell them to take off, eh? I'm just sayin'...