April 23, 2009

Ollie Ollie In Come Free!

Hey. How are ya? I’m Ollie. Yep, Ollie, Ollie, Ollie. That’s me!  I have springs for legs and boy to I love to use them. Boing, boing, boing! I get to be the writer of today’s blog because my buddy Rubin has a sore leg. Poor guy. He’s repooperating…or something like that.  Gretchen says he needs rest and it makes me very, very sad because when Gretchen and Rubin come to the back gate, I’m so exicted my legs start twitching and I start jumping. Boing, Boing, Boing! Ollie, Ollie, Ollie. That’s me!

I also get to write today because I was really the only dog who needed walking. Imagine that.  With all the fun we have, you’d think all the dogs in the whole wide world would want to walk with us?  Ya think? But not today.  Today it was just me and Gretchen and a long, long walk through the park and down to the lake.

I like my walks. It’s like an hour of visiting. I’m certain that every house we walk by is the home of a friend.  Gretchen laughs at me and is always saying, “Nope, Ollie, you don’t live there!”

Okay, I know that, but I’m sure I have a friend who lives in that house…and that house…and that house.  Don’t I?

Gretchen is always trying to get me to sit calmly while she takes a photo. Today, for instance, we passed a waterfall…yes, a waterfall in the city…and she propped me up right next to it only I wasn’t very comfortable sitting next to running water. Plus I was like 2 feet off the ground and that made me kind of nervous. Jittery Ollie, that’s me!

If Rubin had been there, I’d have been a lot more confident. He’s very good at sitting and waiting. He tells me often that if I just go along with it, it will all be over soon, but he wasn’t with me today so I had a hard time sitting still.

We walked through the Madrona neighborhood and even though Gretchen had a raincoat for me packed in her bag, the sun came out and we both got kind of hot!  She stopped once to take off her coat, but when I asked if she could take off mine, she just laughed and said, “Ollie, you are such a cute and silly dog!”

So down through the Madrona woods we walked where I occasionally strayed from Gretchen’s side to smell the ground and the flowers and then race back to her with glee on my face.

“You’re a well-behaved boy,” Gretchen told me and that made me proud, proud, proud. I want to be a good boy, really I do and most of the time I am.  My only bad behavior is that I leap up on Gretchen’s legs. I’m sorry, but I can’t stop it. When you have springs for legs, you really don’t have much control of them. I hope she understands that.

The park was beautiful and look what we found!!!!!

I’m not sure what they are, but Gretchen got all excited and took lots of pictures of them. I got excited, too and peed on them!

I was sad when Gretchen dropped me off at my house, but as usual I ran through the dog door, checked to see if anyone was home, and then raced back on the porch to say goodbye just as Gretchen was speeding away on her scooter.  Varoom, varoom! See you next week and give Rubin a wag for me!

Though my time with Gretchen was over, she had other friends to visit. She’ll be taking care of two dogs for another dog walker while he’s on tour with his brother.  ON TOUR? What does that mean? Is it like visiting?

Well, I guess you’ll find out (hey, that’s a pun) when you check out this website: www.foundmagazine.com

And on the radio at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1311376

So anyway, while I was taking a nap, Gretchen met Gurda…

…a recently rescued dog who lives in the Central District and has one heck of a smile and LOVES LOVES LOVES to be petted on her belly…here she is about to roll over!

And did I mention the smile?

And after Gurda, she met Teabiscuit. What kind of name is that?  Wait, she looks like a miniature Monty!

Apparently, Teabiscuit is obsessed with playing fetch (just like Lucy) and she’s quite good at it, according to Gretchen.

And those ears! They’re just like my buddy Monty’s ears…flap, flap, flap!

Only her tail is quite a bit fluffier…in fact, she’s kind of one of those dogs who you don’t know if she’s coming or going…can you tell which end this is?  Guess!

Teabiscuit doesn’t live too far from me so maybe I’ll get to meet her though apparently, she’s a bit dog shy. She won’t be once she meets me. I’m sure she’ll be impressed with how high I can jump and what a sweet and wonderful boy I am.

Ollie, Ollie, that’s me!

Thanks for the fun of writing on your blog Rubin. Get better soon, buddy. I can’t wait to play with you again!

OllieOllieOllie!