Twenty Fun Things To Do When Mom Is Home Sick

1. Bring her toys.
2. Lay on the clicker.
3. Sigh loudly.
4. At her slightest movement, jump up suddenly and run to the back door.
5. Come back and stare at her from her side of the bed.
6. When she lets you out, pray on her weakness and refuse to come back in.
7. Run in circles, restlessly through the house.
8. Move the blinds back and forth in the windows.
9. Lie quietly in the bed beside her, then abruptly bark... at the meter reader, a squirrel, a bird, a leaf... or nothing at all.
10. Throw a party when she drags herelf into the kitchen to prepare something to eat.
11. Follow her into the bathroom, wagging your tail and smiling.
12. Better yet, take her place in bed when she goes to the bathroom.
13. Jump off the bed and insist that she lets you back up on her side.
14. Lick the end of the thermometer.
15. Growl that growl you growl when you see her hands idle and you want to be rubbed.
16. Lay your head on her head.
17. Hog the bed.
18. Stand up on the bed between her and the ringing phone on the other side of the bed.
19. Disappear. Suspiciously disappear.
20. When her office calls, bark happily as if you are having the best "snow" day ever!

A Golden Retriever's Weather Commentary: SUNSHINE

Today's forecast: BLUE SKIES AND SUNSHINE

GOOD: I get to stay outside most of the day.

GOOD: I get to see Sammy.

GOOD: Lots of interesting sounds outside... music, laughter and garden tools.

GOOD: I get to chase squirrels across the yard.

GOOD: I get to take a nap inside, with my head in a sunny windowsill.

GOOD: Someone's cooking something good!!!

IT'S ALL GOOD!

A Golden Retriever's Weather Commentary: RAIN

Today's forecast: RAIN

GOOD: Getting wet is fun.
BAD: Mom constantly badgering... "PORCH. PORCH. PORCH." is not so fun.

GOOD: Getting dried off is fun.
BAD: Having feet wiped is not so fun.

GOOD: Flushing squirrels out of my window sills is fun.
BAD: There are squirrels in my window sills!

GOOD: Mom doesn't leave to do her normal errands.
BAD: She restricts my outdoor activity.

GOOD: Taking a nap on a gloomy day is relaxing.
BAD: I'd rather be outside!

Who's in the doghouse?!

Mom left thirty minute early for work this morning.

Mom was an hour and a half late coming home from work.

Any other questions?

Do Golden Retrievers Smile?

I was reading somewhere on the doggynet, about a debate amongst humans... "Do golden retrievers smile?"...

What do YOU think?

Wise Words from President Truman

"If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog." —President Harry S Truman

Seeing as how it's President's Day, and I didn't get to greet the mailman today (snicker), I had a little extra time to do some research.

Here's a list of animals who had Presidents:

George Washington: Polly the parrot; 36 hounds; horses
John Adams: horses
Thomas Jefferson: a mockingbird; two bear cubs, a gift from Lewis and Clark
James Madison: Macaw the parrot; sheep
James Monroe: a spaniel
John Quincy Adams: an alligator; silkworms
Andrew Jackson: horses named Truxton, Sam Patches, Emily, Lady Nashville, and Bolivia; Pol the parrot; ponies
Martin Van Buren: two tiger cubs
William Henry Harrison: a goat; a cow
John Tyler: Le Beau, a greyhound; a horse named The General
James Knox Polk: a horse
Zachary Taylor: Old Whitey the horse
James Buchanan: Lara, a Newfoundland; an eagle; an elephant
Abraham Lincoln: Jack the turkey; goats named Nanny and Nanko; ponies; cats; dogs; pigs; a white rabbit
Andrew Johnson: white mice (editor's note... ewwwwww!)
Ulysses S. Grant: Faithful, a Newfoundland; horses named Jeff Davis, Julia, Jennie, Mary, Butcher Boy, Cincinnatus, Egypt, and St. Louis; ponies named Reb and Billy Button; pigs; dogs; a parrot; roosters
Rutherford B. Hayes: Siam, a Siamese cat; Grim, a greyhound; Duke, an English mastiff; Hector, a Newfoundland; Dot, a terrier; canaries; cows; horses; goats; other dogs
James Garfield: Kit the horse; Veto (editor's note... snicker) the dog; fish
Grover Cleveland: a poodle; canaries and mockingbirds
Benjamin Harrison: Dash the dog; Whiskers the goat; dogs; an opossum
William McKinley: a parrot; an Angora cat and her kittens
Theodore Roosevelt: Sailor Boy, a Chesapeake Bay retriever (editor's note... close in my ancestry!); Manchu, a Pekingese; Skip, a mutt; terriers named Jack and Pete; cats named Tom Quartz and Slippers; Josiah the badger; Algonquin the pony; Eli the macaw; Jonathan the piebald rat (editor's note... did Sailor Boy know???) Emily Spinach, a garter snake; twelve horses; five bears; five guinea pigs; other snakes; two kangaroo rats; lizards; roosters; an owl; a flying squirrel; a raccoon; a coyote; a lion; a hyena; a zebra
William Taft: Pauline Wayne the cow
Woodrow Wilson: Old Ike the ram; sheep; chickens; cats
Warren Harding: Laddie Boy, an Airedale; Old Boy, a bulldog; canaries
Calvin Coolidge: Peter Pan, a terrier; Paul Pry (née Laddie Buck), an Airedale; Calamity Jane, a sheepdog; Boston Beans, a bulldog; King Cole, a shepherd; Palo Alto, a birder; collies named Rob Roy (née Oshkosh), Prudence Prim, Ruby Rough, and Bessie; chows named Blackberry and Tiny Tim; canaries named Nip, Tuck, and Snowflake; cats named Bounder, Tiger, and Blacky; raccoons named Rebecca and Horace; Ebeneezer, a donkey (Mom would love Ebeneezer); Smokey, a bobcat; Old Bill, a thrush; Enoch, a goose; a mockingbird; a bear; an antelope; a wallaby; a pygmy hippo; some lion cubs
Herbert Hoover: Glen, a collie; Yukon, a malamute; Patrick, an Irish wolfhound; Eaglehurst Gillette, a setter; Weejie, an elkhound; fox terriers named Big Ben and Sonnie; shepherds named King Tut and Pat; an opossum
Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Fala, a Scottish terrier; Meggie, a Scottish terrier; Major, a German shepherd; Winks, a Llewellyn setter; Tiny, an English sheepdog; President, a Great Dane; Blaze, a mastiff
Harry S Truman: Feller “the unwanted dog” (adopted by Truman's personal physician) (editor's note... evidently he didn't want a friend in Washington!); Mike, an Irish setter (belonged to Margaret Truman)
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Heidi, a Weimaraner
John F. Kennedy: Tom Kitten the cat; Robin the canary; Zsa Zsa the rabbit; Sardar the horse; ponies named Macaroni, Tex, and Leprechaun; parakeets named Bluebell and Marybelle; hamsters named Debbie and Billie; Charlie, a Welsh terrier, plus dogs named Pushinka, Shannon, Wolf, and Clipper, plus Pushinka and Charlie's pups: Blackie, Butterfly, Streaker, and White Tips
Lyndon Johnson: Him and Her, beagles; Freckles, a beagle (Him's pup); Blanco, a collie; Edgar, a mutt (née J. Edgar); Yuki, a mutt; hamsters and lovebirds
Richard Nixon: Checkers, a cocker spaniel; Vicky, a poodle; Pasha, a terrier; King Timahoe, an Irish setter; fish
Gerald Ford: Liberty, a Golden retriever (editor's note... smart man, President Ford!); Chan, a Siamese Cat
Jimmy Carter: Grits the dog; Misty Malarky Ying Yang, a Siamese cat
Ronald Reagan; Rex, a King Charles spaniel; Lucky, a Bouvier des Flandres sheepdog
George H. W. Bush: Millie, a Springer spaniel; Ranger, one of Millie's pups
Bill Clinton: Socks the cat; Buddy, a chocolate Labrador retriever
George W. Bush: Spot, a Springer spaniel, born in the White House in 1989 to George H. W. Bush's Millie (died Feb. 21, 2004); Barney, a Scottish terrier; India (“Willie”) the cat. The Bushes' orange-striped polydactyl cat Ernie was judged too wild for White House life and now lives with a family in California. In 2004, the President gave his wife Laura a Scottish terrier puppy named Miss Beazley for the First Lady's birthday.

Punxsutawney Phil was right! Winter is back!

Well, according to Ole Phil, we're in for another month of winter. At first I didn't believe him, since my yard is full of blooming azaleas, magnolias and lillies. But after this weekend, I think the ole boy knows what he's talking about!

According to legend, Groundhog Day is based on an old Scottish couplet: "If Candlemas Day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year." So it goes that every February 2, people gather at Gobbler's Knob, a wooded (as opposed to grassy, I suppose) knoll just outside of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. And according to all who've witnessed, Phil ain't ever been wrong.

According to what I've read, Phil started making predictions in 1887, making him ONE OLD GROUNDHOG!

Green Retriever Puppy

Well, ain't that somethin'...
This little golden was born green!

Wasabi, (chuckle), the lil green pup,
was born to a Golden mom in Alhambro, California, last November.

To those that tend to worry...
Wasabi is completely healthy and doing just fine!

To those that tend to doubt...
the puppy really WAS born green!
And vets say that the coloration of the placenta, which is green,
rubbed off onto the pup's fur during birth.

If you're still curious... or skeptical... check out more photos here!

WOO WOO WOO... My Valentine from Sammy!

Sammy, MY BOYFRIEND...

I would never have thought him to be a shy boy,

but he had THIS VALENTINE GIFT delivered to me!

To Comet, From Sammy. Inscribed on a red heart.

Does this mean what I think it means?

My Sammy!

He knows the path to my heart runs straight through my tummy! He gave me YUMMIES!!!

I love cookies almost as much as...

I LOVE MY SAMMY!!!

MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.........

There's more to this story. Sammy also got a bath and a shave today! I've always been taken by his boyish good looks, but he's cutting quite a dapper figure this Valentine's Day!

I may woo woo woo him, and then play hard to get... but he knows how I feel!

SAMMY IS MY SPECIAL VALENTINE!

More Valentine's Love for Mom!

What can I say? I'm sneaky and I'm a real treasure in Mom's life (and so are my friends and family!)! I really get around. I sent this card from 150 miles north of here! THIS girl gets around!

Funny story about why I paw-wrote "purple" on the tail!

When my Mom came to see the stork for the first time, there were a bunch of us. She fell in love with me, but I was growing by leaps and bounds (literally) in those days. She spent a couple of hours with me, and was convinced that she and I were destined to play (out) our days together! I needed a little more time with my birth mother (which is a story for another day), so Mom went to the beach. Before leaving, she wanted to make sure I didn't change too much for her to recognize when she got back. So... she and Aunt Susan painted the tip of my tail with a permanent purple marker!

What Mom didn't count on was... I would never forget her! When she came walking up, all tanned and relaxed... I came a'running, purple tail and all! I wasn't going to let her leave without ME!

I love that ole gal!

For Mom on Valentine's Day

My Heart Belongs to YOU, Mom! This is the card I sent from 45 miles south of here. (She can't figure out how I get around, but I have my ways... and REALLY good friends!).

You gotta get "THE SCOOP"!

I love my new POOPER SCOOPER! It's called "THE SCOOP"!

(Who, in the world, do you suppose would steal my old one???)

From what I can tell, this model is highly effective in my yard with thick St Augustine grass... and also helpful to pick up those pesky pecan hulls that hurt my paws!

My POOPER SCOOPER OPERATOR is pretty swell, too!

goldens postulate no. 3

Windy days = Big Eye Boogies

Hey! I LOVE GRAHAM CRACKERS, TOO!

Comet the reindeer

Read the wonderful story of Comet, born April 26, 2002.

Comet is one of Reindeer Games' first two reindeer!
She and Cupid were two weeks when they got them.
And Comet was bottle fed until September 16, 2002
(hmmmm... September 16 is my mother's birthday!
Wow... another strange coincidence!).

More facts:

Comet the reindeer has been in many parades.
Her first baby Rudolph was born May 4, 2004.
Comet loves graham crackers.

Reindeer Names

The Origins of The Reindeer Names

Why were the reindeer called their names?
Here's a short insight:

Dasher: runner up in 1972 Reindeer Olympics
Dancer: ex dancer from the Ministry of Sound
Prancer: reject from a ballet academy
Vixen: foxy kinda reindeer dudette
Comet: a trailblazer in the caribou world
Cupid: match-making beast with romantic tendencies
Donner & Blitzen: victims struck by lightning during a day trip to Berlin
Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer: The only reindeer allergic to snow

goldens postulate no. 2

Happiness is a king size bed.

Ozarks MisAdventure: Day Seven, Deer X and Our Return Home

This morning started differently. Mom awoke in a burst. We went for a quick walk. And while I ate my breakfast, she began gathering everything up. Auntie N cleaned and Mom took everything from the cabin and squeezed it compactly into the CRV.

What does this mean for me, I wondered. By that, I don't mean WHETHER I'm going... but WHERE I'm going.

Once in the car, I had a hard time settling down. I was thinking... the beach? Or Home Sweet Home. I would be satisfied with either, but the excitement was too great to contain.

We were going down a steep incline. Mom was commenting to the driver of the truck behind us, to please back off of our bumper. Remember, Auntie N was in the car. I'm pretty sure if it had just been the two of us, her language might have been a little more... explicit.

Then it happened.

Out of the woods on Mom's side of the car... a doe. I could clearly see that "OH NO" look in her eyes as she tried to change her trajectory. Mom was trying to slow down enough that the truck didn't hit us, but that the deer could pass in front of us.

It was not to be.

The doe hit the front fender and bounced back into the ditch on that same side of the road. She slid almost all the way to the bottom of the incline, hopped up and ran back into the woods.

The truck swerved around us in the oncoming lane and almost hit her, but luckily... didn't.

Mom pulled over and had a... meltdown. Remember, Auntie N was in the car. She might have had something different, otherwise.

It was a lot quieter on the way home. Mom stopped at a body shop to make sure we were ok to drive on home. We dropped Auntie N off in Nac and continued on to H-Town.

I slept most of the way. Vacations have a way of taking it out of you.

When we got home, I was relieved. I, leisurely, conducted a border check. The perimeter was secure, my yard and toys were exactly like I left them, and my king size bed is calling my name. Life is good, yet again... at home.

Ozarks Adventure: Day Six, My Trip to Branson!

o-boy-o-boy-o-boy! A road trip!

Mom and Auntie N shopped, and I sniffed and greeted folks.

I love a trip in the car, especially when they're short trips.

This place was like none I've really seen before... lots of old folks, for sure, which is cool. Maybe next year we'll go to Disney Land!

You're probably asking... a trip to the Ozarks, with the colorful changing leaves... and the best you've got to show for is it is THIS photo? What can I say? Mom's the one with the opposable thumbs and forefinger!

We got back to the cabin in time to chow down on more good food and a good nap in front of the tv. Mom seems a little antsy tonight, but I'm not going to worry about it. If something's up, I'll be the first to know.

As I slumber, I'm thinking... if we're not going home, we need to fix this place up with a fenced yard and a little St Augustine.

Ozarks Adventure, Day Five, Mid-Morning: BIG CAT and the Turning Ponit

Mid-morning, Mom decided that she would like to drive into Branson this afternoon and tour the World's Largest Toy Museum.

At this point in the vacation, I had no cares, and a little time to myself would have really been no problem. But Auntie N wasn't feeling well... and as I rested peacefully on the sofa... they decided that Mom would go and Auntie N would C-sit. Whatever...! All's good.

Right about lunchtime, Mom took me on another short hike. I knew the program. This was about me doing what I needed to do. Unfortunately, I didn't much feel like doing those particular things.

We hiked to the cross-trail that leads to the marina and down to the lake. Once there, we turned around and started back to the cabin.

About 100 yards along the return trip, and about 50 feet in front of us... was the BIGGEST CAT I had ever seen. It was solid black, had short to medium length hair and a long straight tail. It walked slowly across the trail, where we had (just moments before) walked.

(Many peoples and other pals have asked me... ) What did I do? I did what any inteligent dog would do. I FROZE IN MY TRACKS. Mom and I quickly developed an alternate plan, and turned back around!

Now don't get me wrong, I have 14 feline cousins and two feline neighbors who like to sleep in my back yard. Had it been one of them... or one just like them, I would have chased it to my heart's content. Oh, and I've read the story about the golden defending his Mom against the mountain lion. I would have done that, too. For sure I would. But I figure, this big old cat was minding his own business, so... so should I!

That's what I figured!

Anyway, we took the trail back to the Marina road and followed it up the mountain. I won't lie, it was rough going. For some reason, we felt safer on a paved road. It was treacherously steep, but we finally made it up to the top of the mountain, where we took a winding road back down to the cabin. Auntie N was a little frantic when we got back, because we were gone so long.

I sighed deeply as I sank into the sofa for a nap, but Mom got on the internet to figure out exactly what we had seen. It turns out that there are many big cats in the Ozarks and what we saw was something called a BLACK PANTHER.

Mom called the cabin management people and according to her, they said, "yeah, so?". After that, all I heard her say was "Hiking is over. We have just been NYE-EVE." I don't know what that means, but I'm thinking if I had known about such big cats before, I probably would have just trotted around the cabin chasing BLACK SQUIRRELS.

Ozarks Adventure: Day Five... Morning Hike, Big Bird and Familiar Sounds

Bed time now is greeted with a heavy sigh by all involved.

I have resolved myself to the fact that there is an exchange for all things. For 24 hours spent with Mom's attention, I must trade a small portion of the real estate I have grown accustomed to having in the sleeping hours. I'm good with it. It is not too much to ask.

But there IS a lingering question... This IS vacation... right? At this point, I don't know. Is this a getaway? Or is this our new home...? As a golden, by my very nature, I hate to reveal any sort of anxiety... But I do wonder...

I know the routine now, and upon waking (and just enough smooching), I wait patiently for Mom to don her hiking clothes. I know the reward... a long, relaxed hike... at whatever pace I choose.

THIS morning, I choose a LONG walk. It is particularly tranquil in sound, but I find interesting scents... side-to-side of the trail. About a quarter of a mile down the trail... Mom stalled just a little. We both heard a low gutteral sort of sound... I looked back at Mom and she said it was probably a bird...

We were nearing the narrowing of the lake toward the big long bridge, and to our right, the sun began to really glisten off of what I could see of the lake between the trees... very far below our elevation.

We reached a little of a clearing... and Mom stopped suddenly, as I flushed a big old bird. He was perched on a guardrail, and was slow to take off but he seemed to just... sail. It was really cool, and Mom seemed in awe. I would later hear Mom tell Auntie N that we had seen "an eagle". I wasn't sure, but it sure wasn't a finch or a dove.

We continued a bit further and reached a steep bank at the highway. It was the first time that I have heard those familiar sounds since last Friday. All's good. We turned around and headed back for the cabin... home.