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

The Color of Magic

Color is always there. I see it all the time whether it’s the bright orange of my favorite ball, the silvery, slippery shake of a squirrel tail as it races up the street, or the green open field where we go to play fetch. The lake is blue, the mountains are white, then black, and the colors of the dogs we play with, walk with, and pass by are a multitude of wonderful colors.

But when September rolls into October and October temperatures cool off every morning and evening, the colors of Seattle slowly turn into something glowing. Today, we focused on colors. Gretchen pulled out her camera to try to capture it all and what she didn’t capture in photos, I’ll try to capture in words.

I went to school with her today and there I helped the students work on their writing skills. Being such a skilled dog writer myself, I thought I’d impart my words of wisdom. They seemed to appreciate it because they petted my head, played with my ears, and let me rub against their legs.

After my lesson, we picked up an excited Ollie.

“Hey, Ollie,” I asked.

“Yeah, Rubin, Ruby, Rubster, my good, bestest friend!” he bounced back.

“What’s your favorite color?”

“Color? Color? Let’s see. There are so many, how can any dog choose,” he danced and hopped, his tail moving in a blur of enthusiasm. “I know, I know, I know! I love them all. Yes I do, yes I do! The blues and the reds and the greens and the oranges and the purples and yellows, there isn’t a color I don’t like!” And with that we were off on a walk to Saber’s house.

Saber isn’t has excited as Ollie when we first arrive. He stretches and yawns and waits patiently for Gretchen to put on his leash. All three of us headed over to the tennis courts to play and then to our house for a short romp!

“What’s your favorite color, Saber?”

“Huh, color? Dude, let me wake up first.”

Moments later as were walking to our house he says, “I like the color of food.”

“What color is that?” I pressed.

“Good!”

He is a silly dog. It appeared that I was not going to get a straight answer from these two goofs, so I just played with them!

“Hey, Rubin?”

“Yeah, Ollie?”

“I know what color I like best.”

“What color is that, Mr. Goofy?”

“The color of fun! What color is that?”

“I think you had it right the first time, buddy. It’s all colors swirled together!”

“Swirl, swirl, swirl. How fun is that?”

See what I’m working with here? Well, Gretchen left me behind at the house so I could eat my breakfast (leftover from this morning) while she and Saber escorted Ollie back to his house. Then Saber went back home, too, though we knew he was on our schedule for later!

Next up was Rosie. I had Gretchen ask her what her favorite color was…

“Hey, Rosilicious, Rubin wants to know what your favorite color is?”

“Well, let me think about that.”

“Okay, but can we walk while you think?”

“No, not really. I must paws to contemplate the deeper meaning of my choice.”

“Okay then. You let me know when we can get moving.”

Long paws…

“It would have to be purple,” she finally answered and then they headed to Frink Park.

“Why purple?” Gretchen asked and once again they had to stop while Rosie set her brow in concentration.

“Well, at first I was going to say red because that’s the color of Tyson’s leash and since Tyson is my favorite dog in the world and I love him more than anything, I thought red would be a good representation of how I felt.”

“So why did you change it to purple?”

“Because when Tyson gets his leash on, I want mine on too. I want to go with him and when the purple leash is pulled off the hook, then I know I get to go and that makes me feel absolutely delighted.”

“That’s really sweet, Rose. Now, can we continue walking?”

“Sure thing! Let’s go up this way, okay?”

“Anything to make you happy, Rosie!”

“Well, that’s a different question, isn’t it?”

“You mean what makes you happy?” Gretchen asked.

“Yes.” With that Rosie stopped again to think it over.

“Oh, sweetie,” Gretchen said, “I wasn’t asking you what makes you happy. I was simply saying we could go whichever direction felt best to you.”

“Oh, sorry.”

“No apologies necessary. Just keep walking.”

“Okay.” And they were off again, up over the hill and back to Rosie’s house and along they way they took photographs of the changing leaves. Aren’t they beautiful?

Next up was Gemma. Because Gemma is still on the mend, though she is without her cast, Gretchen thought it best to walk her alone. Therefore, she had to ask her the inevitable question of the day.

“Hey, Gemma. Rubin wants to know your favorite color.”

“He does? Why isn’t he asking?”

“He’s at home resting.”

“Resting? What a silly concept.”

“So? What’s your favorite color?”

“Hey,” Gemma smirked, “If Rubin wants to know he shouldn’t be such a lazy fella. He should be here so I can bumped into him while we walk. Then he could ask me himself.”

“Wow, that’s kind of cold.”

“Nope. I just miss him,” Gemma reported.

“I know. He misses you too. Maybe, though, if you told him your favorite color for his survey, he’d walk with you tomorrow as an early birthday present!”

“Well, okay,” Gemma gave in. “It’s red.”

“Why red?”

“Wait. I have to have a reason why I like this color? Is that part of his survey, too?”

Gretchen smiled. “No, I was just interested.”

“Well then,” Gemma relented, “I like red because I’m Irish.”

Gretchen thought about that for a moment and then said, “I thought the Irish color was green?”

“Is it?”

“I think so.”

“But why do all the Irish have red hair? I mean, look at me. I’m Irish and I’m covered in red!”

“Well,” Gretchen tried to explain, “I think the Irish think they are lucky and that luck is green.”

“Oh my,” Gemma pondered. “I’m certainly not lucky. First my ear gets bit, now my toe is broken. I mean, I’ve worn that Collar of Shame more times than I can remember. Would you call that lucky?”

“I guess not.”

“Then I’m sticking with red. Maybe that will be more lucky for me.”

“Good choice.”

After their walk, Gretchen picked up Bella for a short walk and then she got to come visit me for a bit, after which we went for another walk down through the neighborhood pea patch.

“Hey Bella, what’s your favorite color?” I asked.

“That one!” she said, lunging to a blue flower. “Or maybe that one,” she said while hopping on a yellow daisy. “Or that one or that one or that one. Look at ‘em all, would ya? How am I supposed to know these things? I’m just a pup!”

“Settle down, Bella,” I said. “It’s not a test. I was just wondering if you had a preference?”

“Preff-rents? What’s that?”

“Something you prefer. Something you like more than other things,” I tried to explain.

“I like you,” she said slinging her long leg over my back. “And I like Gretchen,” she added pushing her nose into Gretchen’s hand where the treats are sometimes dispensed.

“Okay, okay. I can see this is going to be hard for you to decide. Get back to me about it, okay?”

“Yep, my people will call your people who’ll call other people…” she prattled on for awhile.

“Hey, where’d that come from?” I asked.

“My mom’s a lawyer. She talks like that all the time! I like her, too, by the way.”

A walk with Bella is a constant conversation. Not much is connected, but let’s just say, walking next to Bella can be entertaining. She’s getting better, much better, but I’m certainly tired after we drop her off.

But my work is not over. Nope, we head to Saber’s house after Bella and it’s like going from night to day. Saber is a sleepy evening, while Bella is a bright, bright morning, that’s for sure!

We headed over to the tennis courts for some romping time before we headed to school to meet up with our young friend, the student.

“Saber?”

“Rubin?”

“What’s your favorite color?”

I expected a quick answer from my young friend, but Saber always surprises me. He took his time on this one and then said, after many tosses of the ball, “I think I’m too young to choose. I mean, I have yet to experience the whole world.”

“That makes sense,” I agreed, “But is there one color you like now, at this young age?”

“It would be red because that’s the color of my Kong where exciting things are kept for me to chew on while I’m waiting for you to come play with me.”

“That’s Gemma’s favorite color, too,” I told him and then we talked about when we might get to play with Gemma because Saber loves her and would love to romp around with her again some day.

Later he stopped me and added, “I think I like red because I really like Gemma. Is that okay to confess?”

“Certainly!” I reassured him.

And then we played. And then Desi showed up and we played with him, though Desi doesn’t play much.

But Desi does like to give high fives especially when Gretchen’s handing out treats. Of course, it’s hard to take a photo while giving a high five in return, but you can get the idea from this blurry photo that Desi can sky high!

As for me, I am fond of many colors as well, but the colors of autumn are some of my favorites especially when they are first pushing away the greens. It’s like magic and I guess that’s what color I like the best. The color of magic!

Until Tomorrow,

Rubin