April 17, 2009

I Get By With A Little Help From My Friends!

Friday’s are good days. This Friday was particularly good because:

1. My other mother, Ann, took the day off and she got to go on our first walk of the day with Oshi and Perrito

2. It was sunny (though not terribly warm until later in the afternoon) after a night of rain, rain, and more rain.

3. I got to go to Grandma and Grandpa’s house for the day.

4. And I got to eat cooked pork — thank you Grandma and Grandpa!

The day began early, which it never really does, but since we were headed to Bremerton for the day, Gretchen arranged an earlier than usual walk with Oshi and Perrito, though the start of the walk is rather a funny story. The boys, as you will remember from former blogs, got groomed on Wednesday. Not only is their hair clean and brushed, it is now much shorter. When they stand next to each other, you can see the differences between the two of them — Oshi is lighter and Perrito is darker, for instance. But when they are apart from each other, it’s hard to know which one is which — the case we struggled with yesterday.

Gretchen went into the house to retrieve the dogs, but was only met by one — Oshi (or so she thought). She leashed up Oshi, sent him outside to Ann, and then searched for Perrito. No Perrito. In fact, nothing. The house was silent, though she knew that their dad, Antonio was working outside. So she asked Antonio, “Where’s Perrito?” Antonio went into the house looking and looking for Perrito and as he looked, the more nervous he got. “I don’t know, I don’t know, this is not good,” he said.

Then he looked outside where Ann was waiting with me and “Oshi” only it wasn’t Oshi, it was Perrito. Oshi, it seems, was still sacked out in the bedroom and when Antonio went searching for Perrito, he only saw Oshi and thought for certain Perrito had escaped or was trapped somewhere. Instead, Perrito (who we thought was Oshi…well, my moms did…I knew all along which dog was which!) was with us and Oshi was in bed. Two dogs, no problem.

Everyone laughed and was relieved. The three of us — Oshi, Perrito, and me — we laughed at the humans. “Use your noses,” we told them, “Not your eyes.

After our walk through the neighborhood, we all piled into the car with our friend Denise (human, not dog) for a drive to the Grandparents’ house. I slept and relaxed under the calming massage of Ann who sat in the back seat with me. I was very excited to see Grandma and Grandpa, but Gretchen forgot to take pictures so you only have my word that a great time was had by all. I was a very good boy — everyone agreed — even when I saw the pesky squirrel in their backyard and barked at it again and again. Jasper

When we got home in the late afternoon, Gretchen and I retrieved Monty, piled back into the car, and headed north to fetch Jasper! Gretchen tells me that that, too, was a funny story though I was in the car with Monty waiting for their return.

Usually, Jasper gives a growl and a few barks when Gretchen enters the house followed by what she calls a “happy dance” only this time, there were no growls and no barks. Again, just like in the morning with Oshi and Perrito, she was met with silence. “Jasper?” she called, “Jasper, where are you?” No repsonse. “Hey buddy. Don’t you want a walk?” Still no answer.

Finally, she checked in the bedroom and there he was, sacked out on the bed, his tail gently tapping on the bed covers. As she approached, Jasper rolled over onto his back exposing his belly, yawning and stretching. “You want me to rub your belly?” Gretchen asked.

“Yes, right there!” Jasper pointed to that magic spot along his ribs. It took some cajoling, but eventually Jasper was leashed up and ready to head out the door where he was pleased and excited to find Monty and me! We went for a walk down by Green Lake only that turned out to be kind of a bad idea because Monty was full of energy and couldn’t understand why we weren’t going into the water!

"Hey, that's like water. Why are we here and the water down there, Jasper?"

The two of them couldn’t understand why they had to walk on the path and NOT go into the water.

I wondered, too, but I was being a good boy so I just sat and listened to the two of them question Gretchen’s judgment.

“It’s such a warm day,” Jasper told Monty. “You’d think she’d let us at least put our feet in the water.”

“And I’ve been inside all day,” Monty replied. “A splash in the water would be just the thing to release some of my boyish energy. Did I tell you what a good swimmer I am?”

At this point, I was laughing because Monty, my best friend in all the world, is anything but a good swimmer. He swims, as his mom likes to describe it, overhand. You know, doggie crawl stroke? It’s funny to watch and there are times when we all fear he will drown given the lack of his swimming efficiency, but he never does. Amazing!

Despite their pleading, we didn’t go into the water, but Gretchen promised she’d check with their moms to see if it would be okay if we went in the water occasionally though she’d rather we swam in Lake Washington than Green Lake. She calls Green Lake the Freeway Park because there are so many people and dogs and skaters and cyclists whizzing about. Lake Washington is much calmer. Of course, that means that maybe Jasper will come to our neighborhood some time and take the walk down to our lake for a swim some day. We’ll see.

setting up a photograph On our walk back to Jasper’s house, Gretchen kept trying to get us to all sit so she could take our pictures by the lovely spring flowers that are in bloom. I’m usually pretty good at sitting and so is Jasper, but then Monty ruins the whole thing by walking toward the camera in search of a treat. At that point, we all get up and wander over, following Monty’s lead.

“Oh, Monty,” Gretchen exclaims. “I just want a photograph of the three boys together. Don’t you think you could do that for me?”

“Oh, Gretchen,” Monty retorts. “I just want a treat as do my fine friends here. Don’t you think you could do that for us?

And then everyone laughs, but Gretchen keeps trying.

what's that? At a park near Jasper’s house, Gretchen tried again to get the photograph. Everything was going quite well until we all heard a noise that grabbed our attention.

“Did you hear that?” Monty asked.

“Yep,” I said, “What was it?”

“They make lots of noise in this park,” Jasper explained.

So much for the photograph!

As Gretchen was packing up, though, Monty gave her a big smile and posed in his usual fashion while Jasper showed us his rolling techniques and I got in the way of the photographer!

Happiness