Trust the Tree

Talisker says it’s traditional for the new boy to write at Christmas as he has extra security tasks so needs more nap time in front of the hole in the wall with fire.  I have been really excited to tell everyone about all the cool stuff that has been going on in our kennel but Talisker said that I first had to learn to get rid of the wiggly red lines under some of the words.  I think they’re funny but Talisker said they scare humans so he taught me how to use something called spell check to frighten them away.

A big tree is hanging out in our kennel.  Talisker says it comes every year when it’s cold outside and we have big thick coats.  Our tree is domestic but Bowmore told him that in the olden days our humans used to wear big paw covers made of cow skin to coax a wild one inside because they bite.  Mummy obviously doesn’t even trust the domestic tree because she’s put it in a cage.  I think she needs to learn to be a little more trusting.  It’s really a very kind tree.  Two days ago it gave me an elk horn and fluffy lizard that makes cool squeaky noises when I bite it.

Tobermory

Increased Security Detail

Now that Tobermory has had almost all his juice to stop him getting sick, he gets to join our humans and me on some puppy sized adventures.  He doesn’t seem to fully appreciate the educational benefit of these trips as all he does is fall asleep.  Mummy says he can’t help it as growing is pretty tiring stuff.  I’m used to keeping a watchful eye on our humans but the little guy is way too trusting.  He just goes to sleep wherever tiredness strikes him and doesn’t seem to understand that there’s dangerous stuff out there for a pup who doesn’t keep his wits about him.  I thought he was supposed to help me out but it would now appear that I have to add Tobermory to my usual protection detail.

Talisker

Floor Ticklers

Our humans are very messy and don’t seem to be good at clearing up after themselves so every week a nice human comes to clean the inside of our kennel.  She also tickles the floors with sticks with long pieces of fur on their ends.  The discarded pieces of our coats are very frightened of them so huddle together in little piles.  Tobermory is very curious to know what makes these sticks so frightening so thought he might dismantle a small one to see if he could find the answer.  It would appear that humans guard the secret of the frightening sticks very carefully because they very quickly took it away from Tobermory and gave him a Nylabone instead, like that that was going to defer his curiosity.  Everyone knows that Nylabones are the least threatening object ever.  All they do is lie around waiting to be chewed.

Talisker

Educating Tobermory

I’ve decided it’s time to step up Tobermory’s education.  He’s becoming quite accomplished at the ancient art of sofa restraint but if he’s ever going to be of help to me with security he has a lot to learn.

Going for neighborhood sniffs is an important part of any dog’s life.  It’s when we get to exercise our humans and check our surroundings for potential threats.  Tobermory is definitely into the sniffing but needs to work on his human handling.  I had to explain that you can’t just move at your own pace.  Humans are not very sure footed so it’s important to watch them.

As we get bigger and get more juice to stop us from getting sick, dogs are allowed to go on adventures without sitting in a bag and yesterday, since Tobermory’s first neighborhood sniff went well I thought we should take him out for a treat to sample bread at a local human feeding station.  It was bright outside so we took the motorized dog carrier with no roof which was a real treat for him.  He couldn’t believe how many good smells he could jam up his nose.

It’s always good to see regulars like Hogie and Sierra Belle and it would have been nice if Tobermory had not embarrassed me in front of them, but oh no.  He had to slip his harness and taunt the humans into playing a game of tag.  This is the height of bad manners while humans are eating and Hogie was kind enough to give me a few words of advice on teaching the correct etiquette for the outdoor feeding of humans.  I just copied Bowmore but Tobermory seems to be a little more of a free spirit.

What I don’t understand is why after this appalling behavior, he got to sit on a chair next to Mummy while I politely sat where I was told.

Talisker

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

Keeping Tobermory occupied is really quite a challenge.  He likes to pretend he’s a bear hunter but gets bored of that pretty quickly and then bugs me while I’m on security duty.  In an effort to exhaust him so that I can get on with my work, I thought it would be a good idea to teach him to play crocodiles.  Bowmore used to play it with me occasionally when I was a puppy and it was one of my favorites but Tobermory has become quite obsessed by it.  Humans use a saying, “let sleeping dogs lie” and I now understand what they mean. The only relief I get from that fierce little dude is when he’s asleep.

Talisker

Family Ties

One thing I admire about our humans is that they are very good at staying in contact with their litter mates despite their living in faraway lands and having to travel on flying metal tubes to play with each other.

I lost touch with all my litter mates but luckily for Tobermory his litter mate, Kihei is taking care of a family of humans that ours know. His Daddy used to have a floating human carrier and our Daddy helped him chase other floating human carriers around a big lake called San Francisco Bay.  The things that humans do to amuse themselves never ceases to amaze me.

Kihei came to visit this weekend and watching the kids catch up was a real joy.  For me, having grown up with a mentor, it was very interesting to learn how he is honing his security skills without guidance.  One of the more important things to master for this job is the correct use of teeth.  Bowmore was my instructor and kindly offered his ears and nose for me to practice on and I in turn am doing the same for Tobermory.  Not having this resource, Kihei assumed that small humans wouldn’t mind if he practiced on their noses but apparently they don’t understand how important it is to perfect this skill and make loud squeaky noises and run away.

The kids spent all afternoon wrestling and Kihei’s Daddy took some great pictures of them with a really big picture box.  Our Daddy has always told us that size doesn’t matter but Mummy says it does if you’re taking pictures at the time.

I’m going to make sure I arrange more of these family reunions.  Not only do my ears and nose get a break, but the kids completely wear themselves out so I can get some time off from my babysitting duties.

Talisker

To Lil and Turbo

DEer Mom an Dad
My bIg bruver, TaliSker helPt me wok the riting bocks so I cood tel you Im fyn.  He ses AuNt P wil pars this to u.

MY nu kenel waS skary at fist but I lyk it now.  Talisker is teechin me lods of Nu stuf.  There R byg TAll beds cald sofas that lyk to run away so hes bin teechin me to HOld them dOun.  He ses i hav good teCHnik.

mY nu Mumy has rEd claws.  She maks kool sQeeky noses weN i bYt them.  she also has long fir On HEr hed that is fun to pool.

Yestada my nU dady took ME to a plase ware he drinks fALing ova Juce.  i sAt in a Speshial dog bag.  TALisker staid outside.  He SES hes too grone up to sit in bags.   I thingc he’s misiNG out coz it was prity cumfy an i got to CUdel Dady an lots of hoomans let me Lik thare noz.  thay wiR tasti.

giv Aunt P an Uncle R a LIK on the noz fRom me.

ByG liks,

Tobermory

Sleep Deprivation

Yesterday we took the motorized dog carrier for a ride on the piece of floating road to bring my little brother, Tobermory home to our kennel.  So far he’s showing some good potential for the security profession.  He follows our humans around the whole time and is particularly vocal when he can’t see them.  Man, can that kid yell although he does need to learn when it’s just not cool to express his opinions so loudly.  Little guys are hard work to keep occupied so I need all the shut eye I can get and didn’t appreciate the early morning ruckus that went on today.

Puppy’s come with lots of new toys.  Now, I mastered the correct technique for dismantling them pretty early on and Tobermory is going to need some help in this field.  However, for the moment I am concentrating on the basics of the art of sofa restraint.  There’s only so much you can expect a new security intern to absorb on his first day at a new kennel and at the very least, this lesson allows me to catch up on a little sleep.

Talisker

Remembering Bowmore

Tobermory will be coming home next week, but I will never forget my older brother, Bowmore who taught me everything.  I want to make sure that I can tell my little brother what a cool dude he was and I don’t mean just in his athletic accomplishments but his intellectual side too.  Last night Mummy helped me search through all the pictures of him on her writing box so that I can put a story board together.

I only knew Bowmore in his later years.  When I first came to this kennel he was still an expert Frisbee catcher but was beginning to slow down a little and concentrate more on the ancient art of sofa restraint.  I had always assumed that Frisbees had been the main focus of his life and that he had not pursued his writing ambitions until handing over the job of Chief of Security to me.  However, it would appear that he started at really quite a young age.  This is a picture of him sitting at the writing box.  He was about the same age as I am now and Mummy said he was already quite an accomplished writer and used to often help her out when she was busy.  I guess I have even more to live up to than I realized.

Talisker

Human Insecurities

I admit defeat.  I really need help with security around here.  The more humans there are in our kennel, the harder work it is because after all, I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I wasn’t keeping watch over all them.

It started on Wednesday when Daddy’s Mummy arrived from the far away land she comes from in a flying metal tube; a little extra work but nothing I can’t handle.  The next day one of his litter mates turned up from an even farther away land.   He just wanted to hold the sofa down and watch humans trying to play fetch on the moving picture frame on the wall so this was still well within the scope of my skill set.  On Friday Daddy’s other litter mate stopped by and I have to admit that at this point I was getting a little confused.  I’ve never before seen his whole pack hanging out in our kennel together.

On Saturday it all became clear.  It was Daddy’s Birthday.  He’s really old and humans like to celebrate getting old.  Of course, I expected a few more of his friends to arrive at some point to drink falling over juice with him.  After all, I invite my friends over to play fetch on my Birthday.

First, a few humans dressed in the same body covers arrived with lots of food and then a lot more came to eat it.  Now, it was getting pretty hectic but I was still on top of it until some of them started to pull strings on funny shaped boards, bang on big boxes and howl really loudly.  The other humans started jumping up and down and running around in between eating little colored human treats and I just couldn’t keep track of them anymore.  This was no longer a job for one dog.  When I saw the entrance to our kennel was open I thought it would be a good idea to go down the road and get my BFF, Truman to come and help out.

You’d think that with that many humans they’d be able to take care of each other but they are obviously even more helpless than I had previously thought.  I had just got to Truman’s kennel when I heard lots of humans yelling my name.  There was obviously something bad going on so I ran back as fast as I could to find Daddy and a bunch of them running around looking quite distressed.  Man, those guys are insecure.  Apparently the cause of their distress was that they noticed that I wasn’t watching over them.  Can’t a dog even leave for a few minutes to get back-up?

The number of humans all weekend in our kennel has been pretty high which has seriously eaten into my required 20 hours of sleep a day and I have finally decided that they are now on their own.  I need to take a good, long sleep and boy, do I need some help here.

Talisker

My Kid Brothers

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me.  At the beginning I just thought I was going on one of our usual outings with my humans.  They didn’t appear to be putting bags of human stuff in the back of the motorized dog carrier (my coat is much more practical and I only need one), but I could sense a higher level of excitement than usual.

We drove for a really long time, almost as long as it takes to get to the white slippy stuff that my older brother, Bowmore and I used to go and play in when we had our winter coats.  It started to look a little familiar when we stopped on a piece of floating road that helped us across water.  It would appear that motorized dog carriers don’t swim well.

Not long after we reached the other side, there was a sign, “Diamond P Labs”.  Mummy said this was the place I came from.  I got a little worried at first because this could mean one of two things; either my humans were dissatisfied with my security performance and were bringing me back, or we were there to meet my kid brothers.  Thankfully it was the latter.

I am pleased to say that Mummy was correct and they do now have teeth and seem to show some potential as athletes.  Now the hard part started for them as this was the big interview that would determine their future and when they would both be given names, a monumental day in any dog’s life.

Let me now introduce Tobermory and Kihei.  Their lives will be a little different.  Tobermory is going to be my security intern and I look forward to showing him the ropes and teaching him the art of sofa restraint.  I have not been able to spend enough time on this ancient art since becoming the solo dog responsible for security in this kennel and look forward to spending more time practicing it once the duties are shared a little.

Kihei is going to be thrown a little more into the deep end.  He will be taking care of friends of my humans, and their kennel has been running with no security for a while so I’m sure it’s a little chaotic.  He won’t have a big brother to guide him but he’s a bright kid so I’m sure he’ll work it out.  He also gets the advantage of having human puppies in his kennel which I have always found to be a constant source of amusement and sometimes they can really be quite cute.  I also predict that he may also have a great modeling carreer.

In a couple of weeks my kid brothers will be starting their new lives.  In the meantime they have a little more growing to do and of course have to complete kindergarten.

Talisker

Chasing Tail

Last weekend my humans went to a human gathering at a falling over juice kennel called Sarah’s Vineyard.  They get together to eat and listen to howling humans to celebrate the separation of bunches of little round things used to make falling over juice from their plants.  I don’t really understand this as the little round things must miss their plants.  After all, I miss my humans if you separate me from them and it definitely isn’t something to celebrate.  However, they obviously don’t suffer from separation anxiety as my humans drink a lot of the falling over juice they make which means it must be good and they couldn't produce tasty stuff if they were feeling depressed.

Now, you do have to understand that I only went along to chase a little tail.  This is a human expression I’ve heard used on the moving picture frame on the wall and I think it means they are missing canine companionship and are going out looking for some.  Life is a little lonely without someone of your own kind to talk to and I know dogs help out at Sarah’s.  Unfortunately they thought the humans howled too loudly so had decided to have an early night.

There was an upside.  I got to further my gastronomic research and tasted a human delicacy called bread pudding.  It was pretty good but as a bread connoisseur I think I prefer fresh, untouched artisan sourdough.

Talisker

Tasty Dead Sheep

Can you believe that humans leave food in their feeding bowls?  The best part is that I get to eat it.  I’ve always been a bit of a gourmand so getting the opportunity to sample different flavors is particularly exciting for me.  Tonight it was dead sheep that Daddy put on the cooking box with fire.  It was covered in really tasty yellow cream, sweet crunchy stuff and part of a plant in the garden that I like to scratch my back on.  Mummy says it makes me smell good, but who knew it would be good on dead sheep too?

Talisker

Dog Days

A couple of weeks ago I thought it might be time to start on my winter coat and my humans were even considering putting a bigger rug stuffed with bird fur on their bed but suddenly it got bright and warm outside again.  In fact, it’s not just warm, it’s hot.  I was told that this is called an Indian Summer.

I did a little research on the writing box and found that in some parts of this land an Indian Summer is called Dog Days.  Now, I don’t see many humans running around here with large pieces of bird fir on their heads (that’s how you can tell if they’re an Indian) so this is obviously Dog Days.  I think it's quite an honor to have days that are just for us.  Think about it.  Have you ever heard of humans being honored with Human Days?

Talisker

Toothless security interns?

One of my little brothers is going to come and live with us at our kennel.  My birth parents had another litter and we’re going to interview the little boys in a few weeks to decide which one would be a good security intern to help me out.  I think I’m doing a pretty good job at handling all the security on my own but have to admit that I do get a little lonely sometimes.  Don’t get me wrong, I love my humans but I need a little canine conversation occasionally and I only get to play with my BFF, Truman once every couple of weeks and he’s a bit of a jock so we only really discuss sports.

Now, I do have some concerns.  I saw pictures of my little brothers.  They look really small and I have doubts about how useful they can be in the security profession.  They don’t even seem to have teeth, which is a primary qualification for this job.  Mummy says I was that size and toothless once too but I don’t buy it.  I just hope she proves to be wrong by the time we go to meet the little guys.

Talisker

The Giant Mouse

My humans have finally returned from their most recent adventure.  When I saw the black boxes with wheels I anxiously awaited the release of the Greek mouse catchers to help me with squirrel control and was most disappointed to find that none of them would come here.  Mummy said they all had big families and didn’t want to leave.

This is the first chance I have had since returning from my vacation to get on the writing box.  You have no idea how long it takes to catch up with the backlog of security duties.  I have had to sniff the entire kennel and garden to check that there have been no breaches of security in my absence.

I have to tell you about an interesting experience I had whilst taking some time out from my duties with our neighbors.  Old habits die hard, so at night I felt the need to go out and check the perimeter of their garden before going to bed.  One evening whilst on my patrol I met a guy who looked like a REALLY big mouse.  Now, I always like to meet new people so tried to politely introduce myself and this big mouse just turned his back on me and sprayed really nasty smelly stuff at me.  Mummy told me to keep away from black creatures with big white stripes but she never warned me about giant mice.

Talisker

Thin pickings for mouse catchers

The latest report from my humans is that they are on a lump of land in the middle of a big lake in a place called Greece.  I thought they must have spelt this wrong and meant “grease” and found it a little confusing as I have always thought grease was something that drops off chickens when Mummy puts them in the cooking box with fire and couldn’t understand why they would want to spend time surrounded by such a yucky substance.

I have tried to keep away from the writing box while on vacation, but curiosity got the better of me.  It turns out that there really is a place called Greece.  The humans there are very athletic and like to eat sheep.

At some point in time, there must have been a mouse problem on the lump of land my humans are visiting because there are a lot of mouse catchers roaming the streets.  There obviously are no longer enough mice to keep them all employed as many are reduced to begging at human feeding stations.  Mouse catchers are very proud creatures so this must be particularly humiliating for them.  Being the swimmer that I am, I would just swim to another lump of land to look for new employment, but these little guys don’t have waterproof fur and webbed feet like me so they are a little short of options.  I think Mummy should help a few out and bring them back to our kennel with her in her big black bag.  We don’t have a big mouse problem, but we do have a lot of squirrels who she really hates because they make a mess of her garden.  She says they are big mice with fluffy tails so I’m sure Greek mouse catchers could adapt their skills to catch them too.

Talisker

Strange White Dogs

Occasionally my humans go to far away lands to visit their packs and at the moment they are on one of those trips.  I always enjoy going on adventures with them, but this is one that we have always declined joining them on.  Bowmore told me they get there on flying metal tubes that make dogs travel 3^rd class which was not a method of travel that he was prepared to take at his advanced age.  Being young, I could handle this much better but I think it’s an insult to a dog of my standing to make me travel like that so I’m taking a vacation at the kennel of some nice humans who live near us.  They cuddle me a lot and give me lots of treats.

Mummy has been quite good at keeping in touch and telling me what they have been doing.  For the first part of their trip, they went to the bottom of the land they came from to visit her parents and Dougal who takes care of them.  He’s particularly skilled at the art of camouflage so that he can keep a discreet eye on them.

Daddy’s pack come from the top of that land.  Lots of strange looking white dogs with thick curly hair roam the countryside in packs.  They are particularly thoughtful creatures.  It’s very cold up there and lots of water falls out of the sky and as we all know, humans don’t have much fur, and what they do have isn’t waterproof.  They get cold pretty easily so these kind dogs are well known for their generosity in giving humans some of their fur to keep them warm.

Some humans employ the white dogs to keep their grass short.  I can only assume that they demand a particularly low rate of pay.  Our kennel has a lot of grass and a human stops by with a grass shortening machine which does the job really very quickly and he only has to do it once a week.  It takes an entire pack of these white guys to do the same job and it takes them a really long time. They bite off each piece of grass individually which seems to me to be an extremely inefficient method of grass shortening when there are machines out there that can do it quickly.

Talisker

My BFF

This weekend I went to play fetch with Truman.  He’s my BFF.  He lives in a kennel near ours which is really very convenient as I get to exercise my humans taking them there.  Luckily his and mine seem to get on pretty well.  They all seem to like sitting around drinking falling over juice together and there are always younger humans there to throw balls for us.  I am pleased to say that I have finally returned to my peak condition after my leg repair so can now play fetch competitively again.

It’s always amusing to watch Truman’s tactics.  He’s a bit of a comedian and likes to tease humans by dropping the ball at their feet and then grabbing it again before they get a chance to pick it up.  They find this really annoying which is hilarious to watch.

It would appear that young humans also use the expression “BFF” but I really think they don’t understand what they are talking about.  After all, everyone knows that BFF stands for Best Fetching Friend and humans are really not good at playing fetch.

Talisker

Security Threats

There is a weak point in the security shield of our kennel that the humans seem to be completely oblivious of, and that is the moving picture frame on the wall.  They just sit there quietly watching it while creatures that do not belong with us flaunt their ability to get into our kennel without permission.  I watch really carefully and try my hardest to scare the bad ones off.  The worst is the little green dude who blatantly tries to sell insurance to our humans while they are caught off guard eating their dinner.  I can't believe his audacity.  He just can’t leave us alone.  We have stayed in kennels far away from home with moving picture frames on the wall and that annoying little green guy still finds us there.

Talisker

Human puppies are fun in water

I learnt something new this weekend.  Humans can swim.  We went to visit Bowmore’s old friend Levi.  He used to live in a kennel next to ours but his Daddy wants to grow bunches of the little round things that humans use to make falling over juice, so they moved to a place where the kennels aren’t so close to each other.  Levi’s new kennel has a hole in the ground with water but he told me that since he acquired it later in life he has little interest in learning a new sport.  However, it would appear that his human puppy is really quite agile in water which I find very impressive since she doesn’t have webbed paws like me.  Not only does she swim, but she throws balls in the water and also likes to dive in after them.  I had always assumed that holes in the ground with water were purely for our benefit but am delighted to know that I can have fun with human puppies in them too.

Talisker

Counting Humans

Last night lots of humans came to socialize with ours.  Humans get lost easily so it’s very important to count each one in and check the same number leave just in case any of them need to be rescued from a corner of the kennel that they can’t find their way out of.  Bowmore has always been in charge of this duty and took it very seriously.  He would observe the humans as they arrived, patrol the gathering area to check they were all where they should be and then monitor their departure.  Of course, as he got older he didn’t quite have the stamina to stay up late so liked to bark loudly at them as soon as they had finished feeding to make sure they left so he could go to bed.

Now that I have had to add human counting to my duties, I have decided to apply a more modern approach to this job.  I see myself as more of an ambassador to our kennel.  Last night was the first time that I have had the opportunity to really put this new approach into practice.  I put my best scarf on and greeted each human enthusiastically and showed them one of my toys to put them at ease, then guided them to the main human gathering area.  I spent the rest of the evening schmoozing and checking they were enjoying the food which of course led them to give me samples so that I could offer my opinion.  At the end of the evening, I helped escort them to the kennel exit and checked that they all got into their motorized dog carriers so that I was really sure they were truly off the premises.

As a first cut, I think this new approach worked pretty well.  The humans all seemed to enjoy themselves and I don’t think realized that they were being monitored, but man, was it exhausting.

 Talisker

Bears Eat Free

A few dog years ago when it was cold outside, my brother and I would go quite often with our humans to stay in a kennel surrounded by white slippy stuff.  They like to strap boards on their feet and slide down hills covered in it.

One evening we went out with Daddy for our evening sniff and saw a big black guy called Mr Bear.  We’ve always been taught that it’s polite to introduce yourself to strangers, but Daddy wouldn’t let us.  He told us that the Bear family are not well brought up and are people we really don’t want to mix with.

On further investigation, it would appear that the Bears like to help themselves to human food and have little regard for their property while they are doing so which is the height of bad manners.  They obviously don't have a Mummy like mine.  I tried taking human food a few times, but she’s really scary when she catches me and she always catches me.

Now, I can understand that humans want to protect their property, but I don’t think it’s good for business for human feeding stations to offer to feed Bear’s for free.  I mean, would you really want to eat in a place sitting next to a load of big hairy ill-mannered guys with long claws?

Talisker

Soaking Dead Plants

For all you regular readers, you will know that at the time of year when the air is warm and it’s bright outside, my humans like to go to a field in the middle of our town every week to listen to howling humans.  Personally, I can’t see the attraction but they seem to enjoy it and a lot of their friends join them and share falling over juice with each other.

For the last couple of years, this has been quite stressful for me as a lot of dogs bring their humans.  I had to keep a really good watch out for my old brother to make sure that young dogs didn’t bother him so I’ve really not had the chance to socialize properly for a while.  Now I get to chat and am finding out lots of interesting stuff.  I met a little guy called Rocco.  His pack come from Boston which he told me is on the opposite side of this land and is known for big tea parties.  Humans make tea by soaking dead plants in hot water and it really doesn’t smell good.  Daddy drinks a lot of it which I have never understood but Rocco solved the mystery for me.  Two dog lives ago, Daddy lived in a kennel near Boston.  I haven’t yet had a chance to check on the dangers of tea, but I am a little concerned that he may have developed an addiction to it.

Talisker

Strange Fish

It’s always good to get a little light relief from my busy schedule so I was delighted when my humans told me last weekend that we were taking the motorized dog carrier for a trip to Sonoma.  I’ve been going there with my humans and brother since I was a small pup and know when we’re nearly there because the motorized dog carrier moves slower and the windows open so that I can jam all the wonderful smells up my nose.  Damn!  That place smells good.  I feel quite sorry for the humans because they obviously can’t fully enjoy the experience with those tiny noses.

We went to a falling over juice kennel called Schug Winery.  Usually, my humans just test the produce, but this time they joined other humans to eat very strange looking red fish with claws.  It would appear that when eating these fish it is traditional to wear white plastic scarves showing pictures of them.  And, I have to add that I can’t really see the attraction of eating a fish that has such hard skin that they have to beat it with heavy objects to get the meat out.  What’s wrong with a soft skinned fish like salmon although I have to admit that the hard skinned fish did taste pretty good.

I was hoping that we would be going home after this.  You have to remember that dogs need at least 20 hours of good sleep a day, but they insisted on stopping at Nicholson Ranch to collect more falling over juice so I didn’t even get a comfortable sleep back to the kennel.

Talisker