Top Tip

No matter how much I beg, or dribble, or give the doe eyed look you adore so much.  Never, ever feed me cheese puffs.  The pile of bright orange vomit on the cream carpet should be proof enough that I can't stomach them.

Routine

My routine has been shot to pieces this week.  Normally it's up at 6.30 for a brisk walk around the lake, back at 7.15 for breakfast, keep an eye on my human until she leaves for work at 8 then sleep on and off for the rest of the day with the odd wander around the apartment to stretch my legs and check everything is ok.  With my human on 'staycation' this week I don't know whether I'm coming or going.  Some mornings we are out early, others it has been 8 am before I can partake in my morning ablutions.  Some days it has been two walks, others 3, 4 or more.  I'm constantly on alert for the next walk.  Don't get me wrong it's great having her around but I'm used to my routine, I know where I am with it, it gives my day structure.  At the moment I don't know if I'm supposed to be sleeping peacefully or begging her to take me out.  I've had to adopt a whole new strategy in the morning.  At 6 am I move into the bedroom doorway and lay there quietly.  At 6.30 I move into the bedroom and lie in the path from her bed to the on-suite.  If there's no movement by 7 I move next to the bed and sigh loudly.  If that fails to work I jump up on to her bed at 7.30 and lie next to her and if she still refuses to get out of her pit by 8 I give her a friendly lick across the chops, which usually has the desired effect.  Hee hee hee.

Mommy's here

Obviously not my mommy, my human's mommy arrived last week.  It was a bit stressful at the airport as we lost her.  Well, it wasn't really our fault, the pilot hadn't put enough fuel in the plane so they had to stop off at the petrol station in Baltimore for some.  I kid you not, he didn't have enough to circle for 20 minutes waiting for a landing slot so he went to Baltimore fill up.  We eventually found her 3 hours later.

It's ace having 'granny' around.  She brought lots of nice things for me to eat including two packs of custard creams, one from her and one from my lovely neighbours back in England.  I'm limited to one a day though.

Stormy night ahead.

Watching the news last night made it sound like the world was going to come to end.  I was a bit nervous when I went out for my morning ablutions.  Would I have to swim to higher ground before I could cock my leg?  Nope!  I was a bit wet when I got back but nothing worth moaning about.  One of my neighbours was amazed that I went for a walk this morning... I still need a wee even when it rains.  So far we've got off lightly although more rain is on the way tonight.  The drainage lakes are really full but no flooding as yet.  The local amateur weather station has recorded 7.26 inches of rain so far today.  I live near the red blob on the map below.

Noah's Ark

OK, I'm looking for a lady Labrador, two elephants, two giraffes, a couple of polar bears, two giant pandas, two ladybirds, a handful of dung beetles, no make that a couple of thousand dung beetles they'll have their work cut out, oh and a dove....
Sorry, no snakes allowed.

Sink or swim

Time to get the wellies out or maybe a lifeboat.  It seems the extreme weather isn't over yet.  Not quite a hurricane but maybe a tropical storm to drench me later this week.  Boy am I looking forward to a few days of gentle English drizzle.  Labrador's are good swimmers aren't we?

Missed Me

Danger over with - Earl missed us completely!  There's still a few weeks of hurricane season left so we are not out of the woods just yet.

Keeping on the subject of weather you'd be forgiven for thinking the weather around here is controlled by some kind of intergalactic thermostat.  The holiday weekend marking the end of summer comes around and the temperature instantly drops by 10 degrees - the weekend was beautiful.  No more sweating like a polar bear in the Bahamas', just beautiful mid 20's and blue sky.  My paws hurt like heck though as my human decided she was going to be fit and healthy and walked the socks off me (if I wore socks that is).  I really enjoyed it but I wish she'd remember I'm not a teenager any more, I'm geriatric, the vet said so!

I had an early start on Saturday thanks to the Kentlands fun run.  The finish line was right outside my apartment and they started setting up at 6am.  After the third rendition of 'testing, testing, one two three' over the PA system I had no choice than to get up and out of the apartment.  Watching the runners from the window was pretty cool though.  As you can see not all the dogs were as enthralled as I was with the action.  We walked the 5K route on Sunday morning, nosing at all the big houses along the way.

I went to the park twice over the weekend which was cool.  Don't tell anyone but I had a little paddle in the lake to cool my aching paws.  It was a bit odd that my human was around all weekend.  Usually she takes a big bag containing funny looking sticks and little white balls and disappears for hours when the weather is nice.

Oh yeah, excitement... I'm going on my holidays on Thursday.  It's been months since I've met up with my friends at the kennels, I'm really excited.

Eh dogs, the action is this way...

Now that's the way to travel.  I wonder if it's big enough for me?

Weather Watch

This year I've survived record snow fall, record high temperatures, tornados and an earthquake.  What does that leave then?  How about a hurricane?  Oooops don't speak too soon...

Hopefully it will veer out to sea and won't affect me but I am keeping a close eye on the forecast and don't think I'll be booking a beach side hotel for the holiday weekend!

Wash Day

Life has been pretty boring for the last couple of weeks.  No storms, tornados or record high temperatures, in fact the weather has been really nice; not too hot and nice and sunny.  I can finally go for a decent walk without nearly fainting through heat exhaustion.

I came over all domestic today and gave my toys a wash because they were a bit stinky.

Before the trip to the 'whirlie washer' at the theme park.

Enjoying the ride.

Checking for predators while the toys enjoy the view and dry off

Time to bring them in after their adverture

All sparkly clean

 

Lively Start

I had a nice early start this morning.  It took a while for me to persuade my human to get up, but some pathetic whining and a quick lick of the nose soon woke her from her snoring slumber.  She mumbled something about it being too early as it was still dark.  There was a reason for that, my super-senses had detected an approaching storm, and I really needed a pee before it arrived.  Talk about good timing... I'd just finished at the first fire hydrant when the thunder started.  Two hydrants, a lamppost, a tree and two bushes later and the rain started.  It was amazing, in a scary, hide in the closet, cover your ears, close your eyes and kiss your arse goodbye kinda way.  I thought last week's storm was a biggie, this was the mother of the biggie.  Some local folks across town had a lucky escape when a tree crashed through their apartment building.  Luckily it fell through the stairwell so there were no serious injuries.  A house was also crushed by a tree and God clearly has a sense of humour as a church roof collapsed and, just to balance things up, the roof of a pub was ripped off.  Amazingly there were no serious injuries but plenty of cleaning up to be done.

I was brave enough to take a bit of video from behind closed doors.  Turn the sound up and wait...

"Bing, bong.  Clean up crew to the patio doors please, clean up crew to the doors."

Boy am I looking forward to getting back to the benign British weather, two tornado warnings in one day is two too many in my book.  

Wildlife update

Another first for at the weekend... I saw a humming bird.  Being geriatric (see previous post) I wasn't quick enough to get a photo of it but my beady little eyes spotted the little fella.  They are so cool.  I've lived here for over a year now and didn't realise they lived this far north.  Not as cool as a hummingbird but I did get a shot of a hummingbird clearwing moth.

 

Reflections

Out and about over the weekend I came across a memorial to the victims of the Beltway sniper.  I vaguely remember it on English TV when I was puppy but he was known as the DC sniper - I never realised it happened so near where I am or that so many people lost their lives.  It's a sad reflection of the times we live in and a reminder that we never know what is around the corner; personally I'm hoping it will be a massive lottery win!