My To Do List

1. Get up — This is not as easy at it might seem. I sleep soundly on my own bed, but every morning, once the alarm goes off, I’m invited up to the BIG BED and there I rest until someone forces me to really get up and face the day. Today that took most of the morning and about 10 minutes before we had to leave for school, I was forced to rise.

2. Do my business — I’ll spare you the details.

3. Eat breakfast — As you may know, I avoid this, but that doesn’t keep Gretchen from making the bowl of food, putting it down for me, and then saying, “Guess you’ll eat later,” whereupon she covers the bowl and puts it in the fridge. It’s a regular routine and I’m not sure why we go through it every morning when 9 times out of 10, I eat it later.

4. Walk to school — Sometimes we have to do this quickly because Gretchen tends to dawdle and has to be in a bit of a rush, but other times, like today, we get to stroll casually and I’m allowed to sniff the remains of the night events. And sometimes, the events of the night have yet to finish.

Like today when we saw a HUGE raccoon in the middle of the street — frozen and waiting for us to pass. I’ve smelled that guy before, but this was my first spotting and you can imagine, I was thrilled out of my skin!

5. Teach — Today the teaching was easy, but maybe because I woke up so late, I was kind of grumpy and really didn’t want the kids to pet me much. They were obliging albeit disappointed.

6. Back home — I’m ready for my breakfast now, so Gretchen pulls it out of the fridge and leaves me alone to eat it while she walks off to her first dog client of the day.

7. Walk Rosie (actually, I’m napping after my breakfast, but I’m thinking/dreaming about  Gretchen who is walking Rosie so it’s on my list!) — Today Rosie was feeling much better after her sore back this past week. She was dancing and spinning and raring to go, but Gretchen still took it slowly. They walked over by the museum and when Rosie saw the open field, she was all ready to get frisky. Instead, they took some photos and then had a love-fest with Gretchen spending some quality cuddle time with Rosie in the warm March sun (it’s not that warm, but it still felt good!).

8. Pick up Gemma — Gemma is always ready for a walk, for some action, for a visit from her friends so when Gretchen picks her up, the first thing Gemma does is run to the couch so she can look out the window. “Who’s here?” she asks while skidding onto the couch. Today, no one, but Gretchen reassured the silly girl that they’d pick up some friends along the way.

9. Pick ME up! — I’ve eaten, I’ve rested, and yes, I’m ready to rumble. Gemma can’t wait until we get outside before she’s sliding and slamming into me, excited that maybe just maybe we get to play. But first…

10. Go fetch Saber — Once we turn the corner towards Saber’s house there is no turning back. Gemma will not let us. She knows the way to and like a sled dog, she pulls us there whining with excitement the whole way.

11. Quick, go to the courts so we can burn off some energy!

12. Take Gemma back home. Bye Gemma…have a nice nap!

13. Pick up Alice — Normally, I am the only one to go to Alice’s house and then, if we have other dogs on the schedule, we walk to their house so Alice can meet them. Today we brought Saber with us and while he’s an affable fellow, Alice was scared out of her wits for about the first 10 minutes. So scared, in fact, she just sat on her couch and growled and barked and refused to come anywhere near Gretchen even though she had some tasty treats to share.

14. Sit on the porch — So to wait for Alice to relax and not be so nervous, we sat on the porch — Gretchen, Saber, and me — and soak up some sun. Soon enough, Alice silently slides onto the porch, her tail tucked, her ears down, and her eyes darting around the yard checking out who all is there.

15. Go for a walk with Alice and Saber — Once Gretchen finally gets the leash on Alice, we take a walk though it’s difficult for the first 5 minutes because Alice wants to sniff Saber and Saber, in his gregarious way, wants to say hello to Alice. Unfortunately, Alice wants to be in charge so while she gets to sniff him, he must behave and while Saber does a really good job behaving it takes every ounce of energy he has in order to do so.

16. Pose — Normally, when we pose for pictures we know a reward awaits us when we’re all done — a cookie, a treat, some kind of tasty snack. But today, that snack was extraordinary. Little did I know that Gretchen was carrying in her backpack a gift from Tyson and Rosie — LEFTOVERS of Tyson’s birthday cake. Oh My Dog it was good and what a nice reward for lying obediently in the sun.  Alice liked the cake so much, she even drooled (see above photo!).

17. Take home Saber and then Alice and finally head back to our home where I can work on the blog and take a much needed map. Oh, and eat the last of the yummy birthday cake (thanks Rosie and Tyson for the tasty treat!!!).

There’s more to my day, but no one really cares about grocery shopping, cooking dinner, playing tug of war, writing this blog, and watching some TV except us. But trust me, my day is one long list and I’m forever thankful that it ends with a nice snooze in my bed and begins with an invitation to the BIG BED!

Until Tomorrow,

Rubin