Yesterday, her highness did what she hopes will be the last lawn mowing for the year. I’m not so certain – it still seems to be growing. We watched the activity from the deck with Einstein shouting out if she missed a spot. She finished the mowing and went back around to the front of the house. She took out the weed whacker and was cleaning up some edging. The next thing we knew it, we heard her anguished shouting. The FG put his paws on the counter to look out the kitchen window and see what was happening. He saw her highness doing some strange dance – and shouting. Seems she must have hit a hornets’ nest on the ground. She was stung on the ankle and on the head. Two more hornets were crawling on her arm and her pant leg. She managed to knock them off before they could sting her.

Because she doesn’t know exactly where the nest is, she will have to keep us away from that area until she can get rid of it. Well – maybe not her – but probably someone she’ll hire who knows about these things. Mind you, if our internet resources are correct – the hornets will be dying off with the cold weather. We’ll have to find out.

After the bugaballoo, she took the FG for a long walk. Then she filled our supper dishes and showed them to us. She told Einstein and me that we were going out – but we needed to come back quickly to eat. Blah blah blah. She took us out around the house and headed down to the lake. We were having a great run and sniffing the ground for bunny balls. As we started doing the loop back to the house, I was in the lead. The last time we did this – just the other day- I didn’t take the path back to our house- but headed up to the neighbors’ place. So her highness decided to stop me. She called me and I stopped and waited. She said it was ok to go ahead – thinking I would take the path home since it was supper time. Nope. Off I ran. With her in hot pursuit. Meanwhile, the good dog took the path back to the house. As her highness rounded the edge of the neighbors’ property, she spotted me sniffing in front of their garage. The neighbors were out and I timidly went to say hello. Here comes her highness- all out of breath and she grabs my bandanna. Drama queen- I was just saying hello. Her highness was chatting with the neighbors for a minute or two when she sees something at the end of their driveway. Einstein. He heard the voices and came to see what was going on. He stood there suspended. Her highness called to him – but he just stood and stared at her. I think he was confused as to why we were both there – and why he was being called over. We’re ordinarily not allowed to just go running over there – so being the “good dog” he thought he would be in trouble. He finally came after she coaxed him to come. Then he would have stayed.

On the way home, she threatened me with no supper. What a joker. She KNOWS I have to eat with my meds. And I know that too. We PONs are smart – and we don’t forget.

Today we have a rainy day in the forecast – so no long walks. Unless she gets out the rainwear… Gotta go- time to hide.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Her highness shared a photo on FB the other day that she found on the net. It was a beautiful fall scene with leaves carpeting the ground. And the caption read: Autumn Dog Poop. You know it’s out there. You just don’t know where.

Yes – it’s that beautiful time of the year, where you need to pick up poop practically as it’s being produced, or carry little flags to mark the location for pick up later. We don’t even have a LOT of leaves down yet- but yesterday, while Einstein was doing his thing, her highness was busy watching me for results. And when she went to pick up Einstein’s production, she could hardly find it.

You know those pictures of Where’s Waldo? There could be one of a yard of leaves with the caption: Where’s poopo?

It’s surprising that you can’t rent a poop detection dog in the fall to help find it. Must of us dogs could do it – but we probably won’t do it when you want us to. We would have to be specially trained to do it on command. So I actually have two money making schemes here – poop flag markers or poop detection dogs.

If you’ve ever stepped in fall leaf poop you know it’s really no laughing matter… At least to you humans….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up!

And they continue to grow. The tomatoes. Every day her highness fills a bowl. And there is no end in sight.

Now she even covers them at night if she hears there is even a remote chance of a frost. As if we haven’t had enough of a harvest already. BUT – I did get to enjoy the bounty of the harvest in a different way yesterday.

After her highness brought in another batch, she decided to take some up to the restaurant at the golf course up the road. She did that a few weeks ago- and they were quite happy to relieve her of some of the harvest.

So she announced yours truly could go along for the walk. All by myself. And if that wasn’t great enough, when I got there, I got to meet the chef. He thought I was pretty cute – and why not, I’m sweet and adorable and so well behaved. Until you live with me. So after he greeted me, he asked her highness if I could have a treat. At first her highness hesitated – as she is always afraid to give me anything out of the ordinary- for fear of triggering a possible seizure. But I just looked at her with my big eyes the way a kid looks at a parent after grandma has offered some candy. So she agreed – and get this – I got a piece of steak. Really. How awesome was that? Of course when I went home I had steak breath, and Einstein knew it immediately. He just glared at me. The FG was annoyed because he usually gets to go to the course- and he felt totally slighted. He’ll get over it.

Meanwhile, although the tomatoes are doing great, the red peppers aren’t turning red. Or orange or yellow. Her highness isn’t sure which color they should be exactly- but she knows for sure she didn’t plant the green variety. She read somewhere that if peppers aren’t happy, they may not turn color. Really. And it must be true – she read it on the internet. I suggest we tell the peppers some jokes to make them happy – like this one I found: Why did the mother pepper put a jacket on her baby? Because it was a little chili.

I’ll just leave that right there.

On the other hand, the pumpkins ARE changing color. But like I said before – they won’t win any giant pumpkin contest. I think we need to try the giant variety next year.

Today, I suggest we take up more tomatoes to the golf course. And I am quite happy to go to deliver them. Wonder what’s on the menu…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

OK. Do we know several things. PONs like food and we do like to countersurf. Remember the time I stole bananas and ate them – peel and all? Food is not safe with us.

We also know that the FG is a picky Picard. Some food he eats. Some he tosses. Some he stares at. Some he ignores. Leaving food on the counter is not really a problem. Until now.

Yesterday morning we had our walks. We had breakfast. Her highness had some people picking up some furniture at the house – she’s doing some “redecorating” – so she’s been selling and giving some stuff away. Our good friends (and neighbors) came by to watch (and help) as some folks removed a particularly heavy item – while we were sequestered- and shouting out directions. Her highness enjoyed a cup of coffee with one of her friends after the “movers” left. Meanwhile, we were outside- enjoying the crisp morning sunshine.

The neighbor left, and her highness let us in and went about making her breakfast. She poured another cup of coffee and put her toast on the island. She went to open the deck door to let in some fresh air. Einstein and I ran to make sure there were no leftover movers on the deck. Her highness turns around and is shocked to see the FG with two paws on the counter, licking the butter off her toast. “Hey” she shouted “get down from there.” He jumped down and smacked his lips. I immediately ran over for three reasons: 1. To see what he had sampled. 2. To see if there was any left. 3. To congratulate him on the success his newfound skill. I mean, he MAY have looked at food before, but THIS was his real first lick. He’s learned the technique- so there’s no stopping him now. Well done Friendly Giant. Don’t forget who was your coach. And don’t forget to share!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

So yesterday and Thursday, her highness went out for the day. She was helping a friend who was selling antiques at a big festival about 45 minutes away. But not to worry about us. Anna came by after school, gave me my medication and let us out for a pee. She told her highness we were pretty vocal. That’s because the first time she came by to help out, we were on our very best behavior. This week she got the true behavioral sample. Her highness hopes it doesn’t scare Anna off. Nah. I think she likes us.

When her highness got home on Thursday at supper time, she fed us and took us for walks. We wanted to do something else – but it was already starting to get dark out. Have you noticed that it gets dark out much earlier already? So much for outdoor fetch at 8PM. Anyway, we kept bugging her highness- so in a moment of exasperation she announced “OK – everybody in the car.” Imagine our jubilation. She let us into the garage, opened the hatch on Ludwig and Einstein and the FG hopped in. Meanwhile, I was searching the garage for food – remember- the dog food is stored in the garage. Her highness called me but I was busy searching. She finally came to get me, hoisted me up into Ludwig and closed the hatch. I immediately jumped into the front seat. She opened the driver’s side door and I hopped out – again in search of food. She came around Ludwig, caught me and again hoisted me into Ludwig and warned me to stay in the back. This time I listened.

We should have realized that the fact that we were all loose in the back was unusual. We excitedly smeared olfactory art all over the back windows. We drove up the driveway to the road. Where could we be going? The pet store?! The vet? Nope. She drove down our road – to the mailboxes at the main road. The drive takes all of 2 minutes. She hopped out of the vehicle, careful to remove the keys. She doesn’t trust that we wouldn’t drive off without her. She gets the one piece of mail in the box, jumps in and heads for home. Nice trick. So much for an exciting destination. That was worse than just going to the gas station. Still, I suppose it beat staying home. And we did enjoy it.

Today she’s not going to the festival- so we’ll see what she has on the agenda for the day. No mail on Saturdays – so another mailbox ride isn’t a possibility. Whatever we do, as long as it doesn’t involve a comb and brush, we’ll be happy.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

So today we have a money saving tip…

I need to begin my blog by saying I love my vet. She is super nice and she puts up with her highness’ wild internet research and her 1000 questions. She always calls us back to answer questions about my meds. We truly love her. We wouldn’t trade her for all the biscuits at the pet store. Vets themselves are truly worth their weight in biscuits. They have a tough job – they treat humans as much as they treat animals. A good vet is a treasure and we are very lucky to have one. We actually like all the vets at our clinic.

We learned something about veterinary medications, though that not everyone MAY realize – and something that isn’t always evident. Between me and Einstein, we take 6 medications. Some are prescribed and we get them at the human pharmacy. The vet clinic does not even carry those drugs. Some are only available for pets through the veterinary clinic. BUT we learned that at least one, which is designed for dogs and is sold through the vet clinic is ALSO available at the human pharmacy at a substantially reduced cost. The drug has a fancy schmancy veterinary name. BUT – it also has the real drug name. And her highness was paying $99 at the vet clinic for 28 pills. As you might guess, our monthly drug bills are rather high. No wonder her highness is always looking for money making schemes! Anyway, this week, she did her homework. She got the exact same medication (with a prescription of course!) at the human pharmacy for $72. For 60 pills. Yes- 60! Um I’m no math wizard – but I think she just saved us the cost of a box of biscuits. SEVERAL boxes of biscuits!

We are not blaming our vet clinic for the cost of the drugs. The costs are what they are. You can’t get mad at your human pharmacist for the cost of your human medication. The human pharmaceutical industry is not without its own issues when it comes to drug prices! And clearly the same is true for pet meds. When your dog is taking medication, it is important to consider all the options. And that’s where people owned by pets have to do their homework. You have to be involved in your pet’s care and you do need to ask questions. That was our lesson this week!

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

So let’s start off with a little follow up to my pill pocket story. We had some questions after we posted it – AND we gained some great information. Someone asked if they needed to be baked. We forgot to mention that they don’t require baking. Just roll and go. Someone asked how long the balls can be refrigerated. According the recipe, they will be good until the expiration date on the milk that you used to make them. We actually stretched that date- as her highness usually does anyway. We were thinking you could maybe even substitute water for the milk- and then that wouldn’t be an issue. But if they don’t work – don’t blame me because we didn’t try it.

Someone also wrote that coconut flour absorbs moisture more than regular flour – which is why we initially had the crumbling problem. Good to know!

And finally someone wrote and suggested a brilliant idea. They don’t even go through all the trouble of making little balls. They just make the dough, put it in a container in the fridge and then pull out a piece as needed to put around the pills. Now that’s smart! No need to roll balls! I like it!

Her highness made another batch of balls AND she also made the big dough ball. She figures the balls are handy if someone else needs to give me a pill – like Anna. But we have the big ball for her highness to use.

Not much new around here – although I hate to report I’ve had 3 seizures this month. Including one last night. We don’t know why. We never know why. Epilepsy is hard…Her highness needs to call the vet today to see what we do now about my meds…

On a lighter note, on this day in 1948, the Honda Motor Company was founded. In previous blogs we have talked about how car manufacturers use dogs to market their vehicles – like VW and Subaru. So you KNOW I had to see if Honda ever did. And I found a few examples:

This one pulls at the heartstrings because it looks at dogs with disabilities:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/oYNj/2019-honda-cr-v-lx-random-acts-of-helpfulness-new-set-of-wheels-t2

This one looks at service dogs:

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/dk3K/honda-service-dog

This one addresses our canine ability to pick out when people may not be totally truthful…

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/7IK_/2013-honda-cr-v-growling-dog

But THIS one is really special…

https://www.ispot.tv/ad/ww0S/2017-honda-cr-v-best-friends

I think her highness got tears over that one.

Well time to check the plantation. Einstein is REALLY into the harvest. He LOVES those cherry tomatoes. He stands and STARES at her highness while she’s picking them- hoping to get a handout. I like them – but he LOVES them. The FG still uses them as marbles.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

You can smell it in the air. That sweet, pungent smell of rotting leaves. But it’s not a bad smell. It’s the smell of change. Mother Nature is changing her wardrobe, and shedding her attire. But before she does that, she puts on a beautiful display. And the show is just starting here. With several weeks until the grand finale.

Her highness LOVES the fall. And we canines do too. The evenings are cool, but the days are often warm and colorful. The fall photo shoots have slowly begun- but won’t be in full swing for a few weeks.

She came home from the dreaded Dollar store the other day. Wearing that “Do I have a surprise for you,” expression- which usually signals some kind of appalling attire. The FG is already planning his escape.

And speaking of escapes, we had some excitement on our constitutional yesterday morning. It was just after 7AM, and the sun was already up. Einstein and I reached the road and all was quiet. We were doing our typical SPAT -sniff, pee and trot and we were walking on leash, ahead of her highness. It was rather warm yesterday- a contrast from the past few mornings when she could have been wearing gloves- it was so chilly. Anyway, we’re rolling along, and suddenly, her highness is aware of heavy breathing. Right behind her! She turns around and finds Max – our neighbor who lives on the property next to us. Max is on his own. Which is very odd. Clearly he has escaped. Her highness says hello and Einstein and I swing around. We all do the obligatory butt sniffing circle dance – and we agree that all is right with the world. Max and Einstein do the play bow and start attempting to wrestle. Her highness is concerned, because traffic to the golf course will be starting- and she doesn’t want Max to jump out into an oncoming car. She decides to head back toward Max’s house- with all three of us doing circles around her. As we start heading back, she spots one of Max’s humans who is heading toward us on the road. She reaches us and explains he just took off when let out. She cannot for the life of her, catch him. He dodges her every time she tries to grab him. So we all head back toward their house, knowing he will follow. Just as we approach their driveway, who appears from the golf course but Jackson aka Pig Pen and his human! It’s a canine street party! Before 7:30 AM. To solve the problem of capturing Max, Jackson and his human go down the long driveway and right into Max’s house. Meanwhile, Einstein and I are just standing there watching a comrade being corralled. The door shuts. Busted. He is contained. We wait for Jackson and walk back up the road with him.

We have come to the conclusion that Jackson is probably the best behaved dog on the road. True – he will run off his property to greet us – but he usually comes when called. Well – unless there is a mud puddle or body of water that he spots – then even the good dog becomes deaf. I guess we all have our vices. Some of us more than others.

I think Max took off because he has fall fever. Either that, or his humans brought home a bag from the Dollar store too…

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Well we now know her highness is REALLY into the retirement mode. After a summer of doing nothing- well except tending the plantation, mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, walking us, feeding us, playing with us, walking us, doing the laundry, walking us, grooming us, getting groceries, picking up our medication, taking us to the vet, walking us and spending some time with friends- she is FINALLY doing something productive. Yesterday she made pill pockets. How exciting is that? She made them once before- it was MONTHS ago – but she finally made a batch again.

For those who don’t know, between me and Einstein, we get 14 pills every day. Now if one were to use the commercially available pill pockets, which cost 12.99 for 30, you can see that we would have a BIT of a challenge – because my name is not Viktor Gates (as in Bill Gates). We do use things like white bread (without the crust) balled up around the pill- but her highness notices we tend to chew the bread. Sometimes resulting in tiny pill pieces being dropped on the floor. We use peanut butter- although I am actually learning how to separate the pill in my mouth from the peanut butter. It’s not easy and I can’t do it all the time. But it does happen. Not to mention fact that I usually end up with peanut butter in my beard. Put it in a banana? Sure but I still can find the pill. Especially the BIG ones – and I take 6 BIG ones each day. When she does use a pill pocket, I just swallow the thing whole.

So yesterday she decided to make her own. I think I talked about this once before- but it’s been a while. The recipe called for 2 Tablespoons of flour, one Tablespoon of milk and one Tablespoon of peanut butter. Simple enough. But then she never does anything simply. Not only did she double the recipe, she used organic coconut flour instead of regular flour. As if we care. You are supposed to mix the ingredients to form dough. You then roll the dough into little balls, and insert a straw so you will have a place to insert the pill. Because we are so environmentally conscious, we don’t have any straws. OK. That’s not true. We never had any straws. We were environmentally conscious before we needed to be – and didn’t even know it. Anyway, she found something in the cooking utensil draw – which holds an assortment of things she rarely uses. And she attempted to make holes.

Well. The first mix was kind of dry, so the balls crumbled. Maybe it was the coconut flour. She added milk. And more peanut butter. Now it was soupy. More coconut flour. The batch was getting bigger. All the while, the FG and I are of course, underfoot- supervising.

After much moaning and groaning and many defective balls, she finally managed to fill an ice cube try with them. They don’t need to be frozen- just refrigerated. She figured if she put them in a bag, she would end up with a huge ball of peanut butery mess. Yum.

When pill time came, she was able to insert a couple of the smaller pills into one ball. Which is a good thing- otherwise she would be going into full- time production. Hey! There’s a money-making scheme! Viktor’s balls. Wait that doesn’t sound so great. I have to think about this one…Plus I wonder if you can make pill pockets out of tomatoes…

I must confess- I DID like them. Thank goodness.

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.

Quick update from the plantation. The tomato harvest is in full swing. And Einstein and I have discovered that cherry tomatoes are a tasty treat! Mind you, besides spinach what won’t we PONs eat? At first we weren’t sure about them – but it took about 3.8 seconds before we decided we liked them. Of course the FG was a different story…

It’s quite remarkable that we haven’t peed on the plantation. Probably because her highness watches us like a hawk if we are in the back yard. Yesterday she went to do another harvest. She has already frozen a whole tray of tomatoes and they are residing in the freezer. Every day she picks more. So when she went out yesterday, she took the FG with her. As she was gathering the crop, she handed him a nice ripe cherry tomato. I should interject here with a reminder that green tomatoes as well as the leaves and stems from the tomato plants can be harmful to us canines. We should NOT eat anything green on a tomato plant. We CAN eat red, ripe tomatoes- in moderation of course. We are allowed two each of the cherry tomatoes. That’s because we had about 4 each the other day, and while yours truly was fine, I DID pass some rather aromatic gas that night. So it’s a two tomato limit.

Anyway, back to the FG. So he gets the ripe tomato and gingerly carries it in his mouth. Then he lies down on the lawn and drops it. He nudges it with his nose. Her highness picks it up and tosses it at him. He grabs it and tosses it himself. Then he stares at it. For about a minute. Her highness tosses another tomato to him. Now he stares at both of them. He picks one up. He spits it out. He stares at both of them. This goes on for several minutes until her highness says, “OK- let’s go.” He is on a leash- and she tugs at it. He stays lying on the lawn, staring at the tomatoes. She tries again to move him. Dead , tomato-mesmerized weight. She runs to the end of the leash. Still no movement. He can’t decide what to do. He doesn’t REALLY want the tomatoes, but he doesn’t want to leave them either. After several fruitless tries, she finally gets him to move.

He comes in the house and Einstein and I are let out. We race to the backyard to see what he had – we had been watching the spectacle from the deck. We find the tomatoes and gobble them up.

The peppers on the plantation are also growing well. But the BEST are the pumpkins. OK. They wouldn’t win any weigh off for size, but they are cute. And turning orange. I can see a fall photo shoot in the near future.

Speaking of which, her highness has been rumbling something about going to the dreaded Dollar Store. And you KNOW why. Howl-o-ween. The one time of the year dogs cannot be held accountable for biting their humans. My only hope is that they don’t have anything interesting for pets to wear. Who am I kidding. She’ll find something. I think a little run away might be in order….

Have a good one. Peace and paws up.