Farewell to the Last of the Three Amigos

Sharing my life with our dogs has always been one of my greatest joys.  However, with that joy comes the responsibility of knowing when to allow the source of that joy leave this world with dignity when their time comes.  Today was Tobermory’s time.

Tobermory was a unique character with a frantic and hyper un-Labrador-like personality that he never grew out of, but he won our hearts with his sweet, affectionate demeanor.  I never thought I would miss his need to inform the world loudly when there was something he wanted like the toy his brother had (“the only toy I want is the one my brother has right now!”), the excited screeches he made every morning until he had received what he considered to be enough cuddles, or the persistent yips directed at me if I had the audacity to glance at my email before giving him breakfast.  But, after a dozen years of chaos, our home is now eerily quiet.

By now, I’m sure that Tobermory has caught up with his dearly departed brother, Talisker and they are once again romping around with their good friend Truman, THE THREE AMIGOS back together once again.

Mummy

Canine Luxury at Hyatt Regency Sonoma in Santa Rosa: Comfy Beds and Bar Stardom

My little brother, Arran turned 3 human years last week.  Mummy made him her special doggie birthday cake containing orange vegetables, bee juice and butter made from nuts, topped with cheese from small human kennels.  We invited our friend, Porter from the other side of our street to join us to eat it and being a fish retriever like us, he happily obliged.

That was just the first part of the Birthday treat.  A few days later, we climbed into the motorized dog carrier with the humans and went on an adventure.  For a Covid Puppy, Arran’s a little more travelled than most and has a special place in his heart for the Hyatt in Santa Rosa.  It was where he first experienced a travelling human kennel when we stayed there as the human biting epidemic died down and they were allowed out in public without muzzles.  You can just imagine the excited yelps he made when we pulled up outside.

This travelling human kennel has always been one of my favorites too.  As soon as we walked in the door, the memories flooded back, but let's talk about the highlight of our stay – the beds!  Oh, those heavenly, cloud-like beds that welcome us with open paws as we sank into the fluffy pillows.  It was like being wrapped in a warm hug from our humans.

The excitement increased as Arran and I became the star attractions in the buzzing bar when we stopped by after dinner for our humans to have their end of evening glass of falling over juice.  The other humans found our puppy charms irresistible as they showered us with ear scratches and butt rubs, and of course, Arran’s excited bounces every time a new one approaches always make them smile.

Now, you may not know this, but to be able to perform our security duties properly, we need at least 20 hours of sleep each day, so after all that excitement we needed a long nap.  Humans don’t need so much rest, so to achieve our goal, we needed to find something to keep them occupied.  Let me tell you a secret: the moving picture frame on the wall.  I find it fascinating how they can watch it quietly for hours.

Tobermory

Understanding the Debt Ceiling: Insights from a Wise Old Dog

Now that I am in my senior years, I leave most of the security duties in our kennel to Arran, enabling me to spend more time honing my skills of sofa restraint.  Since it’s in front of the moving picture frame on the wall, this gives me plenty of opportunity to catch up with current affairs.

I have been watching with great interest a number of arguments on something called the debt ceiling.  I’ve noticed the height of the ceiling in the kennel where a group of humans appear to be sitting around like a bunch of cats, hissing and scratching at each other over whether they should raise the height.  I’m confused.  That ceiling seems really high, so where is this debt ceiling that so desperately needs to be raised?

Tobermory

Sharing Bodily Warmth

It’s that time of year again when the sun makes it look warm and bright, but it goes to bed early and then it can get cold.  The kid is still too young to understand and all he does is complain.  When we went for our weekly adventure on Friday to our humans’ favorite falling over juice kennel, Testarossa, they tried everything to make him happy … comfy seats in front of the table with fire while wrapped in a blanket to share bodily warmth and treated us to human kibble and hard cow juice.  I personally was having a great time.  Who doesn’t enjoy eating hard cow juice while wrapped in a blanket in front of a table with fire?  Apparently not Arran.  All he did was whine at Daddy to take us back to our kennel when I know that all he really wanted was to interrupt my relaxation so he could go for another sniff around town.

Tobermory

Spooky Happenings in the Human World

There are strange things happening in our neighborhood.  For the last week, one of the human kennels near us has had monsters in their garden that jump out at us and say scary things when we pass by on our evening sniff.  That’s not all.  This evening lots of human puppies have been knocking on our door dressed in strange body covers and begging for treats.  When we beg, we don’t get anything without doing something for our reward, but Daddy is showing no resistance and just handing over human treats without even making them sit.

Arran

Happy Herbs

Every year, when the sun starts to go to bed later, Mummy spends several days digging in the brown stuff in a box at the end of our garden.  She then plants little green things that she puts cages around.   I think she’s concerned they may escape.  They’re pretty high maintenance.  She gives them lots of love and spends a lot of time feeding them.  They grow really tall and strong and in return, their job is to grow round yellow and red human treats, but this and last year’s didn’t appreciate her care and gave her nothing in return.

This weekend Mummy sent the tall plants packing and replaced them with little bushy ones called herbs.  She says they’re low maintenance, don’t need to be replaced every year and are very tasty in human kibble which makes our humans happy.

Now, here is where I am a little confused.  Our friends, Frankie and Abby’s Daddy grows special herbs in his garden with bad smelling flowers that he says make him really, really happy when he sets fire to them.  I was concerned that we would have the same problem, but I had a good sniff of Mummy’s herbs, and they smell great.

Tobermory

Neighborhood Sniffs on Rain Hold

There’s lots of water falling out of the sky today.  Our humans are really happy.  They say we really need it, but here’s the bit I don’t understand.  If they’re really happy about the water, you’d think they would be outside enjoying it, but instead they are sitting inside looking at colored blobs on their writing boxes and told us that our daily neighborhood sniff is on "rain hold".

Arran