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