Hey blogaroos! Squirmy Nippy Wormy here on a marvelous Monday. We hope your week is starting off terrifically!!!

We had a good weekend because hip hip hurray – the temperatures have gone down so we can actually enjoy being outside again. The Coyote and I chose to celebrate by digging a massive hole in the middle of the back lawn. I overheard My Enforcer telling a friend that if she goes missing, check the backyard. She’s so funny.

What else? Oh- I know – my latest escapade. So the other evening before total sundown, My Enforcer took me and the Boss for a run down to the lake. She had SUPER yummy treats (liver snacks) so I wouldn’t be tempted to stray too far. The Boss wouldn’t even leave her side. Anyway, I was still racing through the woods, running ahead on the trail, racing in the trees , racing back when called- basically doing my best hummingbird on too much nectar routine. At one point I was off dodging at full speed between trees, over logs and under branches when My Enforcer called. I raced out of the woods onto the trail and ran full force into the Boss. Major collision. He yelled – pushed me off him and immediately laid down like he was mortally injured. My Enforcer was shocked and immediately thought he had a leg injury – because I kinda swept him off his feet. She bent over to help him, not even thinking about the wad of liver treats in her hand. One sniff of that and the drama king jumped right up- and miraculously, he was healed. He just glared at me as he munched on the liver treats as he trotted down the trail. He’s such a faker. Oh I know- be more careful. But really – I didn’t do it on purpose!

That Boss is a HUGE creature of habit – and although they say elephants never forget, whoever coined the phrase had never met a PON. For example, on his morning walk, he EXPECTS treats at various points on the route. And he’ll keep staring at My Enforcer if she doesn’t give him one. I’m sure if someone watched the two of them, they would be fascinated to hear the conversation if she runs of of treats… “I’m sorry, that was the last one. Move along. I don’t have any more. Really. I’m out. I’ll give you one at home. Move along. NO. I’m not kidding. I don’t HAVE any. I’m all OUT. MOVE ALONG. Stop staring at me. I’m not joking. LOOK- here’s my empty pocket!!!”

About two weeks ago, she made the supreme mistake of giving all of us a bit of toast from her breakfast. So now, the Boss quickly devours the contents of his Kong and then sits and stares at her while she’s eating breakfast. Even if she’s not having toast. He’s one persistent vacuum.

OK. Time for my morning walk. I hope you all have a marvelous day! And I’ll TRY to be good…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo. Blog readers. Elroy here. Hanging loose on the weekend. Mind you, I always hang loose. Unless the front door is left open.

So just some random thoughts and observations here…

Frozen blueberries rock. Yup. I’m back into eating blueberries again with the Mops. I was on a blueberry fast for a few months. Didn’t like them AT ALL. But in the past few weeks I’ve decided they are good. Her Highness basically takes them out of the freezer, rinses them and doles them out like candy at Halloween. I kinda like the hard cold texture – like mini marbles that taste sweet. Not that I’ve ever eaten real marbles. Though Her Highness often accuses me of having lost them.

So did you ever notice that as we canines get older, that humans develop significant canine-observational- paranoia (COP for short)? Like take the Boss. He’s 11 years and 7 months old – and if the dude sneezes, she goes into a frenzy. See we KNOW he has a cardiac problem that was diagnosed in July 2019. The 10th to be exact because she went back and read through 100 blog posts to find the date. And he’s on meds for his heart. Does he have any symptoms? No. He didn’t have any to begin with. He has as much energy as ever. Barks like he always does. Eats, pees and poops like normal. Except for that issue with the cling on and the dog sitter. But seriously, the guy acts normal. Yeah he’s been panting more in the past few days. But given that we’re having a heat wave, and we are ALL panting, he’s not doing anything differently. Problem is, when she saw the cardiologist in 2019, and he said the Boss should easily “make it to 12”, Her Highness breathed a sigh of relief. But hello. He’ll be 12 in January. So you know what that means. Full on COP. Which is CRAZY because nobody knows for SURE how much time anybody has. And really, given that he has no symptoms- her COP is a bit unfounded. So IMAGINE the total COP frenzy when the Boss started limping the other day. She was certain this was a disaster. Like limping is suddenly a symptom of cardiac problems. Not. Anyway, the dude had been licking his foot. Who knows why. It’s his thing. He does it sometimes. Anyway, he must have licked too much, making it sore. Remember, the dude is a drama king. Just trying to look at his foot was torture, and trimming the hair on his foot was like he was undergoing an amputation. All this to say that two days later he was trotting along COMPLETELY and TOTALLY normally. So the COP meter went down. A bit. Honestly, if he drinks water too quickly and coughs, she stares at him. In fact, she counts how many times in a day that he coughs. The grand total was zero yesterday. Average is twice a day. Usually after gulping down his food like a vacuum cleaner. She stares at the color of his tongue. It’s pink, by the way. The same color pink as mine and the Imp’s.

I get it. Yeah. Yeah. She’s concerned about him. She worries about him. She cares about him. It’s a human-dog thing. And it’s good to be aware. But seriously. She could make a guy paranoid himself. Ya know, if they didn’t find the heart murmur incidentally during removal of a cyst, we wouldn’t even KNOW he has a problem. She needs to chill a bit. Which is hard in this heat. I think she needs a hobby. Making blueberry biscuits seems like a good way to redirect her energy…

Lastly, she’s been letting the Imp FREE (out of his crate) when she goes out now. AND – she has been letting us free downstairs when she is gone, because it’s cooler down there. Usually we are blocked upstairs. Anyway, first day she went out for an hour, she returned to a rec room littered with throw pillows from the sofa and loveseat. We had a bit of a party, and the Imp really likes throwing those things around. She put the pillows away. But she forgot the blanket on the sofa. Next time she went out and returned, he was proudly mopping the floor with it. All in all though, no major damage. At least none that she has noticed. Maybe the pony sized crate in the dining room can finally be disassembled. Maybe.

Those are my thoughts. Now I’m done.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Hey hey hey blogaroos- it’s Squirmy nippy Wormy here. Writing from HOT Nova Scotia. And I mean HOT. Like it’s 31 Celsius but it feels like 40! That the high 80s and over 100 for my Fahrenheit friends. We hardly moved yesterday. My Enforcer took me out at 6:30AM and by the time I got home 50 minutes later, it was too hot to walk the other guys any distance at all. Phew.

Well today is a super special day – it’s National Dog Day. My Enforcer burst out laughing – she said EVERY SINGLE DAY in this household is Dog Day. We rule. Really. We do.

Anyway, to celebrate this marked occasion, maybe you want to play canine trivia with your friends and family. Here are 100 questions to get you going:

https://triviaquiznight.com/dog-trivia-questions-and-answers/

We aced the easy questions and actually didn’t do all that badly on the difficult ones. My Enforcer is a bit of a canine trivia geek. And why not? What else could she be interested in?!

That being said, she took this next one and only got 83%. The next time she took it she got 100%. I believe that’s called cheating. She said she was just testing her memory.

https://play.howstuffworks.com/amp/quiz/can-you-pass-this-dog-trivia-quiz

She didn’t know the one about the ancient dog. Now she does. Those guys were weird looking things. They liked to bite things – they were hyena-like bone crushing dogs. Explains my nipping behavior.

Today I have a practice training session with my friends, a Borzoi and a Boston. We go to a special place to practice our rally moves. It’s good for us because there are “distractions” which we all need apparently . Personally, I like the treats. And the air conditioning.

OK. Gotta go for my walk before it gets like the Sahara.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe. And cool.

Howdy blogaroos! Squirmy here on a terrific Tuesday. We had a rainy day yesterday, but luckily it didn’t start until AFTER we had our morning walks. Thank goodness.

Not much new around here – although I did have a rally class the other night. I did OK, although lately I have become aware of the world around me more, so ummmmm…..my attention sometimes goes somewhere else. Like on the floor where another dog was sitting, or in the air when I smell the treats that someone else has. I think it’s because I’m a teenager -16 months to be exact. I like to do training, but I also like to do my own thing too. Kind of freestyle obedience.

In addition to my momentary brain farts, if I get bored, I kinda act out. Like I pull on the leash. Or I take a little nibble of My Enforcer. In class the other day, I started pulling on her shorts. She quickly attempted to extinguish that behavior, because I came close to pulling her shorts down. I thought that would have been funny. Somehow she didn’t.

At home I’m still the nippy guy in the gang. Her Highness is forever yelling “Where’s Tuggie?!” to redirect my attention to chewing on the toy, and not her. In the course of a day, she must say “don’t bite me,” a dozen times. Oh that’s not right. It’s probably more like 50 times. Just joking. Sort of.

We herding breeds can sometimes be a bit nippy. Here’s an article that has some interesting points on the subject.

https://outdoordogfun.com/how-to-stop-a-herding-dog-from-nipping/

I like the part about our “desire to please” which is at odds with our “distinct independent streak.” Hello? That’s ME! Plus the part about going rogue- yup – that’s me and the bunnies.

Apparently the Boss has never been particularly nippy, but he does have an independent streak for sure. And the word “independent?” Look it up in the dictionary and you’ll see the Coyote’s picture. Mind you, he’s not nippy either.

For now, Tuggie is a brilliant answer to the nipping dilemma. Tuggie’s real name is Tugga Wubba and “he’s” made by Kong.

Problem is, Tuggie doesn’t go everywhere. He’s too big. We need the mini Tuggie. A pocket sized Tuggie. My Enforcer thought she found another option in the pet store last week. BUT it wasn’t the REAL Tuggie – it was a substitute that had plastic on it. It was a Wubba Comet. Not a Tugga Wubba. Which I promptly destroyed because of the plastic. You can’t get a Tuggie substitute. She just needs to go back and get a mini Tuggie (Tugga Wubba). Is anybody confused yet?

Well time for my walk, and some practice in self control. You know, I CAN be good. But we do need a mini Tuggie….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Greetings blog readers. Frodo here for your reading pleasure today.

Well Her Highness has marked another trip around the sun – and she asked that I thank all those who sent her fond birthday wishes. She’s rather amazed at the number of people around the world who sent her kind greetings. I needed to point out that it’s because of US that she is infamous… She agreed that was true. Yes – we canines are at the center of the universe. I’m not quite sure where you humans would be without us. Seeing eye cats? Or bomb detection cats? I think not. Although I am sure there are some cats who would argue that they are too smart to put their lives in danger detecting bombs. Interesting point..

But I digress. Time for a bit of household tattling . And for a change it does not involve a PON. The flight-risk Picard had a little “incident” the other night. Although, truth be told, it was PARTLY my fault.

The time was dusk. And Her Highness was preparing for a pre-arranged phone marathon with a dear friend who lives several time zones away. The appointed phone time was 9:00PM. Therefore at 8:35 she decided it would be a good idea to take each of us canines out for a “quick pee.”

Now this would have likely gone according to plan, had we not JUST been out in the backyard. Barking at SOMETHING. A bunny? A pheasant? A raccoon? The neighbors’ cat? Bigfoot? It didn’t matter because we could not get close to the cause of our barking because of our fence. Her error was in not thinking about this before she opened the front door to take us to pee…

She planned to take each of us one at a time. She put a leash on the Imp, and told me to “wait.” The Coyote was, at this point, lounging on his bed in the dining room. Well. As she opened the door to take the Imp out, he lunged forward, wanting to run around to the back of the house to find whatever it was that we were barking at. As he did so, yours truly bolted past Her Highness and also raced out the door – off leash.

Her Highness, in an effort to hold onto the Imp, and to call me back, walked 10 feet from the front door. And left it open…

The next thing she knew, the Coyote came racing out the door and ran barking around the front of the house to the back. She immediately knew this was NOT good. She dragged the Imp back to the door, while shouting at me and the Coyote to come back. The Coyote came back to the front of the house, took one look at the driveway aka canine speedway, and off he ran.

Her Highness dragged the Imp inside and shouted for me to come in. By this point, I was regrettably recognizing what had happened, so I marched into the house with the Imp.

Meanwhile, Het Highness threw off her flip flops, put on running shoes and grabbed a headlamp. She raced up the driveway shouting “Elroy. Elroy.” As if by some miracle he would suddenly start responding to his name.

She got up to the road and realized cars would be leaving the golf course and restaurant, as it was getting dark. So what to do to avoid your dog being hit by a vehicle? Why walk in the center of the road. So cars will either a. Stop and ask why you are doing so at which point you can ask that they drive SLOWLY or b. You get flattened like a pancake yourself.

As she walked up the road she was shouting his name. She may as well have called “Hubert” because he may have been more interested in seeing who Hubert was.

Suddenly, she saw him coming up a neighbors’ driveway. He saw her, raced toward her, and veered off when he was within 10 feet – running right past her toward the golf course. BUT, as he got close to our driveway, he stopped to sniff something. Her Highness shouted “sit” – and low and behold, he did. Just as the skies opened and a chorus of angels began singing. She slowly approached him using the fake “what a good boy” voice that one uses to stop us dogs from running away, or eating poisonous mushrooms. Basically it’s used to stop any bad behavior.

She walked over slowly, using the fake voice and tossed a lasso over his head like a skilled cowboy. Her heart was pounding in her chest. All the while said escapee was still sniffing where some animal had previously peed.

Miraculously, she was able to regain her breath, in time for her 9:00PM call. So really, no serious harm done. Besides, she could use the exercise. I DID receive a rather disgusted look though, when she returned.

Never a dull moment. Ever.

Well, it’s about time for my morning constitutional. It’s not raining, so it should be brilliant.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Howdy doody blogaroos. Guess who? You know! It’s Squirmy! And guess what? Today I am going to be a VERY good boy – because……… it’s My Enforcer’s birthday!!! She is celebrating her ….. oops Frodo just said I can’t say which birthday it is. I thought she was as old as the Queen, but I’m thinking I may be a bit off. Based on this blog, it sounds like she could be even older.

https://viktorsviews.com/2017/08/20/a-birthday-3/

I liked what Viktor wrote, so I thought I should include it.

My Enforcer told me a little story this week. Probably being all nostalgic with her birthday. Or just bored.

Anyway, she said that when Viktor went to the Rainbow Bridge, she said she would just have two dogs in her life. She said she thought she was getting “older” so she should just have TWO dogs. Apparently it’s a thing. When you get older, you downsize. And I guess that includes your canines.

But then she started thinking that she wasn’t THAT old. I mean sure, she remembers stuff like the excitement of new pencils on the first day of school; milk machines that dispensed quarts of milk; watching slideshows on a Sunday night of family photos from vacations and holidays; the excitement of getting the big Crayola box with the sharpener; playing with paper dolls; catching moths and putting them in a jar to keep as a pet because she didn’t have a dog; watching black and white TV with like only 3 channels. So we’re talking BEFORE computers; riding in the backseat of the car and laying on the window shelf. So no seat belts; going to drive-in movies and spending more time at the snack bar than watching the movie; taking photos with something called film; playing with friends in the neighborhood and instead of ringing the doorbell, doing this little melodic call at their door “Oh Ju-dy. Oh Kar-en”; wearing rubber boots over her shoes; feeding the neighbors’ dogs steak bones; … she actually remembers the world BEFORE the internet!

But even though she IS THAT old, she figured she STILL could have 3 dogs. Frodo said it was because she was COVID crazy.

Anyway- whether it was a senior moment of not thinking straight, an attempt to hold onto her younger days or whether she was just COVID crazy – it doesn’t matter – because I’m here! Now while some might argue that I DO speed up her aging, I prefer to think that my keeping her on her arthritic toes is good for her!!! She has to stay sharp with me around.

So as Viktor suggested- for My Enforcer’s birthday- do a pay-it-forward gesture. It doesn’t have to be big – but something nice for someone else. That would be the best gift she could receive. That, and me behaving…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Howdy blogaroos. Squirmy here on a wonderful Wednesday. I mention the days of the week just to keep My Enforcer oriented. She’s retired. She is still writing 2020 when dating things. she needs me to keep her on track. Really.

Plus, I need to remind her that if she gives me more belly rubs, I can make her blood pressure go down, and make her feel more relaxed. Some new research here in Canada, just came out, confirming what previous studies have shown about how having us canines around contributes to human health. Here’s the latest:

https://beta.ctvnews.ca/local/british-columbia/2021/8/17/1_5549837.html

Now I suppose I should “qualify” that my role in human well-being CAN be a bit of a stretch at times. Probably because when I am revved up (which is most of the time) and you try to pet me, I return the gesture by trying to bite you. OK. Not like a vicious Cujo bite. But more a “love nibble.” Which may include pulling on your clothes or pinching your skin. The other guys don’t do that. They just stand and enjoy the ear rubs. Me? I spin and bite. My Enforcer is always saying “where’s Tuggie?” Tuggie is a tug toy that I love to carry around and when I’m carrying Tuggie, I’m perfectly adorable. Because can’t do love nibbles while I have Tuggie in my mouth.

I’m not sure how I would have done in this study. Something tells me they used calm dogs in the research. Really, nobody in this household could fit that bill. I suppose the Boss CAN be calm. If he’s not barking. And the Coyote has the same opinion about ear rubs as he does about food – sometimes it’s AWESOME and other times he says “meh.” I DO enjoy ear rubs and good belly rubs, when I’m extremely tired. Then I’m Mr. Cuddles.

Anyway, that’s all the news from here. Oh. Oh. I forgot I had class on Sunday night. My Enforcer had contacted our coach and teacher before class to explain that I’ve been a bit…ummmm…wild during training lately at home. And of course she mentioned the bunny episode. So she didn’t know how I would be in class. So guess what? I was GREAT in class. Gotta keep ‘em thinking. It’s called intermittent reinforcement. I’m brilliant at it…

Have a good one. Peace and paws w. Stay safe.

Hey everybody! Squirmy here! For another Marvelous Monday!

We had a L-A-Z-Y weekend. It was hot. And sunny. Which pretty much causes My Enforcer to melt. Not me. I’d roll ‘til I dropped. But she doesn’t let me. Something about heat stroke blah blah blah.

She actually tried to watch TV this weekend. Like she never watches TV, so you know she was a real heat blob. She discovered something called On Demand TV. Yeah I know it’s been around for decades, but she’s kinda slow on the techno side. I wanted to watch Top Dogs. Instead we ended up watching some home renovation shows. Boring. BUT – before that all started, there was a problem. The TV wasn’t working. She watches it so seldomly, that it wasn’t until the dog sitter told her that the TV wasn’t working that she even knew we had a problem . So LAST weekend ( the one before this past one) she called technical support to get it fixed. They said they had to send out a cable guy. So she made an appointment for last Wednesday. About an hour before the person came, she tried the TV – and miracle of miracles, it was working. So she canceled the appointment. Fast forward to this past weekend and she tries the TV again. Not working. She calls techno support. This time, the lady asked a lot of questions and was telling My Enforcer things to try. Which involved going upstairs and downstairs to the two TV’s. And each time she went, she had three dogs running along with her. At one point two of us started wrestling on the stairs. The guilty parties will remain nameless. At another point when the lady was asking questions, the Coyote, who is generally a pretty quiet guy, just started barking. For no reason. Boof. Boof. Boof. She had to actually excuse herself from the call, race up the stairs and tell him to be quiet. It was a techno gong show. I mean she doesn’t know one box from another – and the lady wasn’t super sweet or patient. Maybe she was constipated or something. She clearly wasn’t a dog owner. She probably has iguanas or something. Anyway, it finally started working- so all was right with the TV world. Until it doesn’t work again…Still – we didn’t get to watch Top Dogs.

Today according to the Crazy Calendar is something called Tell a Joke Day. So, here are some dog jokes! Pick one and tell it to someone to make them groan. Really. Try it out!

https://parade.com/1217627/marynliles/dog-jokes/amp/

The Boss is not exactly the jokester type. He’s still paying his dues for the countersurfing…..

Have a good one! Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Hey blogaroos! Squirmy the-rabbit-chaser Wormy here on a super Saturday. I hope you’re having a super duper day too.

So you heard about my little run about the other day. Honestly I don’t know what all the fuss was- it’s not like I didn’t come back! I HAD to chase that bunny off our property. I mean he could be eating our plants. Or something. It’s not like I hurt him. He was too fast.

So if you think I’m the “bad” dog right now, I’m here to tell you my big brother told me to move aside. Yup. The ultimate “good” dog. The guy who never runs off. The guy who obeys obedience commands like the treat he will get is the first thing he has eaten in a month. Yup – the BOSS has come over to the dark side.

So you know how there are a variety of canine sports? Obedience. Rally. Agility. Flyball. Herding. Tracking. Scentwork. Fieldwork. Lure coursing. Drafting. Dock diving. The list goes on. If there was a Canine Olympics, all of those would be featured. Well the Boss has begun to perfect his skills in another sport. And just in the past few days he has been in serious training. He’s going for Gold. The sport? Countersurfing. Yes, he has always dabbled in training , but in the past few days he has moved his training up a notch. Nothing is safe on the counters. There was the piece of tin foil that had some grease from a hamburger that had been in the oven. It was sitting on the stove. My Enforcer went into the garage for something and was gone 2.3 minutes. What a mess that made. Then there was the Kong. My Enforcer was stuffing Kongs with yogurt and kibble to put them in the freezer. She went into the garage to get more kibble and as she opened the door to come back into the kitchen, she saw the Boss racing past with a half filled Kong. Busted.

The guy can balance on two legs better than me! And he has a jump and grab technique which would score well in the freestyle event.

Sure. He’s always dabbled in the sport, but he’s totally taking his performance to a new level.

So he’ll definitely be trying out for the next canine Olympics. In countersurfing and needless shouting. That’s his other area of expertise.

The guy looks all innocent and well behaved. But underneath all that coat is a devil waiting to come out. He’s my idol….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.

Yo. Blog readers. Elroy here. For a change. The imp seems to have taken control of this blog thing. Give the Shaggy Shark an inch and he takes a marathon. He can be kinda pushy sometimes. What’s really scary is that his “Viktor persona” is starting to come through more and MORE. I swear he is Viktor reincarnated. Like yesterday. Little buddy caused complete PONdemonium after his morning walk. Yup. The future “obedience” dog wasn’t all so obedient yesterday…And they label ME as the flight risk…

So yesterday morning after he ricocheted off the door, the cupboards, Her Highness’ stomach and after he did 14 laps around the dining room table all while she was attempting to put her shoes on, he finally went for his morning walk. And “walk” is a broad term for what he does. Here’s the deal – the dude may do some pretty heeling during obedience training, but in real life, he’s like a hummingbird on a leash. Crazy. Darting back and forth. Sniffing. Tugging. Yeah – the whole “obedience” thing is all an act. In real life he’s a train wreck. But ya never heard it from me.

Anyway, as is usually the case, as they approached the house, Her Highness let him off leash. This is ordinarily no problem. HOWEVER, Her Highness didn’t spot the dumb bunny on the front lawn. Sorry – I know that may not be politically correct to call a rabbit stupid- but our rabbits are not too bright. A human can walk to within 6 feet of the things, and they sit there like they own the place. Even if you stamp your feet. So while their less-than-brilliant behavior may not be a big deal when it comes to slow moving humans, let’s just say the game is QUITE different when a canine approaches.

So you see where this is going. The Imp took one look at Thumper, and I think I almost heard the starting bell ring. Thumper and the Shark were off to the races. Across the lawn, around the house and into the woods. Her Highness saw his butt as it disappeared into the brush. And so much for that “amazing recall” he had as a tiny little dude. Yeah. It was shades of Viktor deafness.

Her Highness waited a minute, expecting him to reappear. One minute. Two minutes. Five minutes. She brought the Boss out, thinking the Imp would hear him and would reappear. Nope. So now Her Highness was in the combo-phase. Scared. And ready to kill him.

She put the Boss in the house and jumped in the car. She had visions of him on the road – which is busy in the morning with golfers arriving. She drove slowly up and down the road. No sign of him. She drove home and came down the driveway, expecting to see him by the front door or in the garage which she had left open. Nope. She raced out of the car and figured she should head for the woods. But which way to go? As she was heading around the house, she was frantically texting neighbors to let them know she had an AWOL dog. As she came around the house, she heard the Boss barking. Or she thought it was the Boss. She glanced up at the deck, and low and behold, guess who was barking to be let in? The vagabond covered in sticks and mud.

Now that’s all well and good. The prodigal PON returned home. But here’s the deal. Our back yard is fenced. With a 4’ high fence. And neither gate was open. So HOW did mini-Houdini get IN the yard. As soon as he saw Her Highness he raced over to her. She opened the gate, and walked him around to the front of the house. He was huffing and puffing and looking pretty ragged from his adventure- but pretty proud of himself too. And here’s the thing – you humans can’t be angry with us – because we came back! There’s no repercussions for such an infraction because what could ya do? Not feed him breakfast? It’s not like he would know why. Yeah – he’s got a taste of the escape thing. And he does it just like Viktor. He comes back. Unlike yours truly who has to be corralled. I like to explore further afield. But that’s been curbed with the fence…

As soon as he was safe in the house, Her Highness went out and walked all along the fence. No sign of a hole under the fence. So HOW did he get in? She didn’t want to THINK that he jumped a 4’ fence because, well – so much for the fence if he did.

She took the Boss out and me out for our walks and fed us breakfast. She had some errands in the morning and returned at noon. First on the agenda was “the lawn”. Again. She mowed it pretty quickly on Saturday, so it needed another go around. We need sheep.

Anyway, while she was mowing, she THINKS she solved the Houdini trick. While she had walked the fence line in the morning and she had used one gate, she hadn’t used the one that goes to the trail to the lake. The gate WAS closed, but that gate has never had a proper hook to secure it like the front gate. It was held to the post by two pretty puny bungee cords. And lo and behold- the bungee cord at the bottom of the gate was busted. We theorize the Imp plowed into the gate and squirmed his way through the opening. Mystery solved. We hope.

Here he is inspecting the work Her Highness had to do to firmly secure the gate. This is just before she installed two new hooks.

Her Highness is hoping his brief taste of the wild won’t result in a repeat behavior. But let’s put it this way, he’ll be on a short leash going forward for a while.

Funny how the Boss never goes AWOL. He doesn’t like to get dirty. Yawn.

It’s kinda nice to be the “good boy” lately. But then, haven’t I always been good?

Never a dull moment in this house. Never. Ever. Time to walk. Later gators.

Have a good cone. Peace and paws up. Stay safe.