Reasons to Celebrate

We have two official celebrations here at Wags n’ Words. The first belongs to my good friend, Gemma who on this day, one year ago, was brought into the world.

Wow. She finally made it! Gemma’s been through a lot in her first year and has a scarred ear and a slight limp to show for it all, but let me tell you something — if you look up the word resilient in the dictionary, you’ll see Little Ms. Gemma’s photograph.  And if you look up tenacious, same thing only a different picture.

This little dog can overcome anything and often walks around the world looking for something interesting to get into. I mean, just making it out the front door and down the steps can be an adventure especially if the crazy dog next door is out. And then, on the walk, if there are squirrels or other dogs, Gemma jumps up and down and says, “Rubin, Rubin, Rubin! Did you see that? Did you see that? Come on! Let’s go check it out!”

You gotta love her though because she’s the most faithful terrier I’ve ever met and I’m proud to call her my friend.

For her birthday, we brought over Ollie, but since Gemma is still recovering from a broken toe, we just went for a walk. Gretchen tried really hard to get a birthday photo, but it’s hard to get us all to pay attention! I mean, when the leaves fall on the trees behind us, we all think there are squirrels about!

After our walk with Gemma and Ollie, Gretchen and I stopped by to pick up Alice. Alice is so funny. She barks and barks and barks and then figures out it’s us and then she gets all wiggly. Kind of reminds me of me in many ways!

Alice walked me back home so I could eat my lunch (though I didn’t) and then she and Gretchen went for a walk through the park and down past the pea patch for a photo op.

Don’t let that serious face fool ya. She’s a very playful gal. In fact, when she got to my house I was really hoping we were going to be able to romp around, but Gretchen kept Alice on a leash, set down my lunch (that I didn’t eat) and headed back out the door.

Maybe we’ll get to play next time!

Once Alice went home, Rosie was next and Rosie was full of energy today, according to Gretchen. They almost ran over to the park where Gretchen took photos of the big field encircled with all those changing colors. I must say, we live in a very beautiful city!

Rosie was so frisky that Gretchen ran backwards and Rosie ran fast to catch up to her because as Rosie knows (or perhaps that should be Rosie’s nose) there are treats in Gretchen’s pockets and Rosie is all about her treats. I wonder if she eats her lunch?

Gretchen dropped off a happy Rosie and then walked up the street to get Bella who was also in a frisky mood. It must be the cooler temperatures because everyone (including me) had a bounce in their steps today. Since we were going to see Bella twice today, Gretchen decided to take her for a long walk this morning and then later, in the evening, go for a romp. So they walked over the hill and down through the neighborhoods where they found a HUGE holiday treat. Bella was at first cautious, but eventually just ignored the ball of orange.

As you can see, it was a great lesson in down/stay with a very big distraction! Good work, Bella!

Next up was Saber, who was kind of sleepy and a little disappointed that I wasn’t waiting at the bottom of the steps for him, but he and Gretchen took a walk through the park over to our house where a very happy Saber was thrilled to see a very happy me!

Which leads us to our second celebration — Saber graduated from Basic Obedience Class. Nice work, son!

Saber and I played super hard in celebration. The above photo is the one time Gretchen got us to rest a moment, but if you look at my eyes, you can tell I’m getting ready to pounce, and pounce I did!

In that last shot, Saber was trying to shove the blue ball in my face — he likes to do that — but during the shove, he lost the ball, which you can see just popping out of his mouth! Don’t worry. He got it back, though what he really wanted to do was chase me. Since it was his celebration, I relented and oh, what a magnificent chase we had!

Eventually we got pretty tired. At that point we just laid down and rolled all over each other. Now that, my friends, is a great way to celebrate!

Whew! I can tell you, I was pretty tired after this and Saber? Well, he walked straight into his kennel at home and laid right down. I think we gave him a pretty decent romp yesterday afternoon!

But our day was not over. I got to rest a bit before we headed out to pick up Bella again. Yes, she was thrilled to see me, so thrilled in fact, Gretchen made a beeline with us to the tennis courts where we played and played and played! Of course, the sun was hovering over the western horizon by then, making for some shadowy photographs, but you get the idea of how much fun we had!

Tonight I think I will sleep extremely well. I’ve worked hard and tomorrow is packed with more expected fun and frolic. Oh, yes, I eventually ate my lunch…around 3:30 in the afternoon…and surprised myself and Gretchen when at 7, I was hungry for dinner. Guess I’m just not a breakfast kind of guy.

Until tomorrow,

Rubin