Pupdate from the Crate: Water Aliens and I Ate Soap

Hi everyone!  This is my first and BEST EVER summer of my life and I'm so busy every day that I can barely take time to post.  I can't believe I've only been here 60 days!  Ya huh!! I came here on April 1 and mom says today is June 30 and tomorrow will be my whole 2 months here!  We both feel like I've always been here and Aunt Margie shares me a lot so I feel like she is my other mom too and I'm pretty happy about that!

Well, this week has been interesting.  I'm getting so very big but mom hardly notices.  So yesterday I decided to eat soap.  I've been smelling it for a long time now when I play in her shower with hangy-down dog washy spray thing but guess what?  Suddenly, I can reach it wayyyyyyy up there on that tiny little shelf!  Yeah, I can so I did and once my mouth had it, my brain was in heaven! I shot right past mom in a split second and started to enjoy that bar of Neutragena soap!  I didn't take the Irish Spring soap....too spicy for me.

Right away mom knew something was up and she got me before I could really enjoy that soap, but I will tell you this.....I held onto the that bar of soap like no tomorrow!  Mom had to pry my mouth off it all the time I was giving her the "LOOK" out of the top of my eyes that says "NOPE.NOT GONNA. MINE! mine mine!"  She is one strong mom and I didn't get to keep the soap (sad face).

So, then I went looking for that soap while she was getting her makeup on and I remembered the same smell is sometimes in that big inside swimmy pool where I get a bath.  She calls it the Jacuzzi tub and it is really tall and she has to lift me in and out but the next thing you know, I was INSIDE that tub!  Hah!  My legs are growing!  I just popped inside and mom poked herself in her eye with her makeup stuff when I did it.  So while I'm searching for soap she says "well, young man, I hope you are happy.  Now you are in there and there's nothing you can do, so you will just need to sit there until I finish getting ready!"  she didn't seem quite as excited as I was that I could get in there by myself now.

So I decided to curl up and have a nap and wait it out.  Then, she left to get camera to show you all how I fit in the tub, but she never made it cause I just jumped right out of that giant tub and came along with her!  My mom is so easily amazed.  She must have a dull life because that was all she could talk about the whole day.  She told dad she remembered when Bruno figured out how to get in the tub by himself, and what a surprise it was when he got big enough to open the slider door to the bathroom and climbed right in the tub WITH mom!  I heard her say that there was no for her and a 100 lb dog so one of them had to get out, and Bruno was swimming then, so it had to be her and no one heard her calling for help (DAD!) so she had to do it all herself which she then said ruined her entire relax, and started a whole new bath privacy policy around our house.

Speaking of tubs, I've been having other water adventures this week! Ya huh!  I love the little pool, but I don't like our big pool at all,  in fact, it sometimes has aliens in it, and it does something funny to my people when they get in it....their legs disappear and they can't walk right.  They walk like the aliens in there....sort of just floating in a weird way and you can't predict when they will get sucked under and go completely invisible.  It is VERY SCARY and I can't get near it.  In fact, I scream my lungs out when an alien is in the pool and I see it. Sometimes it turns out to be dad, or my other people, but I tiptoe right up there hollering and yelling "I DO Believe in SPOOKS....I DO BELIEVE in spooks!" until my brain figures it all out.  Very scary, this pool thing.

Usually, these alien-water-things have no eyes, so you can never see what they are thinking, but man, once you get them out of water they play dead so good that you would never guess how speedy they are in water.  We have one captured now, under the picnic table and it just lays there with its huge round hole of a mouth, waiting, just waiting, for its chance to grab people and try to eat them around their middles.  Mom says it's something called an "inner tube" and it doesn't eat people, but I don't believe her.

We also had some sky aliens here that tried to get me, but I stayed far away and just watched them from the floor.  They keep getting smaller and smaller and don't move any more, so my trick of ignoring them seems to be working.

In my new best ever summer, I am learning to stay put in my dog yard for quite some time, like a bid dog, without freaking out.  One day though, I thought mom had forgotten about me and I called her and called her and she never came!  So, I decided to get quiet and sit still and use my mind to call her like I do when she gives me treats.  So I sat and waited.  I sat and stared.  I was like an Ardie statue.  I barely even blinked.  And you know what?  I had to sit like that for 20 HOURS before she came for me!  I haughty I was gonna die out there just waiting, but mom says I am exaggerating, but I am not.  She said it was less than 20 minutes and she was so proud of me that she watched me just sitting there all that time!  Well....I NEVER!!  I think I got tricked.  The next time I went out to my yard, I lost track of time and had a blast digging a cave in my dirt and I forgot to be worried for a long long time.  My mom has some super mind control over me!

So, now I see that my last post had 1,600+ page views!  Woooo hoooo!  Well, mom says don't get excited because that could be Aunt Margie and Aunt Nancy looking at it 600 times each, but I personally don't think so, so maybe I am getting famous?  Ha!  I'll buy my own bar of soap when that happens!

Have a beautiful best July ever and give soap a try, you won't know how yummy it is until you do!   Xox forever, Ardie

Pupdate from the Crate: Poop Discussion Warning

Hi everyone!  First things first.  Mom wants you to see this picture of me:

Please refer to it often during this blog post.  She says she NEEDS to look at it a lot to remind herself that I am a sweet adorable little puppy-dude who can't help doing certain puppy things even if they seem gross to people.  So here we start with me smelling a pretty flower!  Actually, I chomped it twice before mom could get a picture of me and what I am really doing is pouting cause she won't let me chomp it again.  My teeth are screaming in my head...bite it, BITE IT biteitbiteitbite ITTTTT!  But I didn't because I told my teeth to just relax or they will be in as much trouble as my tongue was in, because my tongue was acting out, now I was here in this situation.

So, I was having the best day ever and worked with mom on attention training stuff in the yard which means my job is to get distracted, which I am EXCELLENT at doing, and her job is to get me to stop being distracted and come right to her or look right at her.  I was wonderful at that so long as the turkey hotdog treats held out, and even a few times when I didn't get a treat, I still did great!  I got lots and lots of turkey dog bits!

Here is where the hotdogs got me into trouble.  If it wasn't for their extreme yumminess, this probably would not have happened.  So, you know, I had ALL those hotdog bits and then I took a nap and then I went out and then I pooped and then....GAG ALERT....I looked at that poop really close cause I think I thought there was hotdogs in it and for sure my nose said YES! ARDIE!! THere are hotdogs in your poop!!!!  I mean my nose was literally screaming in my head so my tongue shouted back "yahoooo!  Let's eat it!" And right at the first lick mom about had a coronary shouting NONO NOOOOOO ARDIE!!!"  She used words like "blech!" beh-beh, caca, and DEEEE-sgusting!  She was talking loud and moving fast.

The next thing I know, I was in the house and having my tongue wiped off and she made me sniff this flower so she can teach my nose and tongue and mouth what is ok, and then when I chomped it, it turns out she said the same stuff as when I licked poop so I'm thinking that flower isn't nearly as good as as.....well....you know.  That picture is actually me pouting while mom holds the flower in my face.  Notice my sad eyes?  Ya huh....I just about had it.

So today, mom is gonna try new treats.  Now she says she doesn't trust me witmh my own....you know...and she keeps saying NONE OF THE OTHER DOGS EVER DID THAT! and I keep thinking, well they didn't know what they were missing.....

I'm out in the dog yard now, hiding from Oreck.  I thought he only came on days when the little bald people-puppy named Sawyer came here, but he isn't here today and I know mom is dragging Oreck around by his skinny neck letting him eat up all the yummy stuff left on the floor.  I am still afraid of him and being outside is better for my nerves.  Besides, I can eat giant ants out there and mom can't stop me!  She tries, but there are just too many and my mouth seems to just love them!  All this time, mom thought I was eating sticky sweet cottonwood pods, but yesterday she made me spit it out and when it ran away.....well....she  had to hold the fence to keep herself upright and not faint dead away right in my dog yard.

My mom seems to be .... Uh....I guess you'd call her....delicate.  Yeah, that's her problem.

Hope you have the best day ever and stay away from turkey hotdogs unless you want real trouble.    xox Ardie

Pupdate from the Crate: Super Ardie Goes Rock Diving

Hi everyone!  I've been on vacation at Aunt Margie's house and she won't let me use her IPad or computer because I'm too little yet....I think...but once she did and I got to tell you how it was going but now she didn't and that's OK because my memory is getting so good that I can tell you about it now and besides....she is way too busy, then way too tired after watching me all day to let me do my blog.  Aunt Margie is almost as old as my Mom so I see that people in that age group don't want to run and play, but Aunt Margie is spunkier than Mom and stronger too!  

At Aunt Margie's house, she has some plants that are just plain mean to me.  They have these cool hangy-down parts and they call out to me when I least expect it.  I mean, I am just standing there and before ya know it they are using their ultrasonic plant voices saying " ....ardie....ARRdieeee....come and look at us....we lovveee you ardie....you should taste us....we taste so gooooddddd.....sooooo  good...." And then when I do taste them, everyone yells NO ARDIE!  all at the same time and I get in trouble.  Why am I the only puppy who can hear them begging me to come and taste them?  

So anyway, the BEST THING ever happened at my Auntie's house!  She got me a swimming pool and I learned how to dive for rocks!  Ya huh!  Here's how I do it: I stand in the cool water and look down and when I see my special rocks that she puts in there for me, I put my foot on it and check if it is real.  I have to do that first because there are fishies and stuff on the bottom of my pool that are not real and I can't pick them up no matter how hard I try.  So then, once I touch it with my foot I DIVE!  Ya huh!  I close up my nose and lock down my swallower, and stick my face right in that pool and get that rock!  Then I take it out, put it on the ground and go back diving for more!  Here is a picture of me doing it.

Oh sorry, I don't have a diving picture but you get the idea.  My mom has a GIANT pool at our house, and so does Aunt Margie, but I only go on the first step.  But I DO drink pool water like crazy and it make my people crazy.  Crazy is a new theme I'm working on as I get older.

So, I got to stay with Aunt Margie and Aunt Nancy when mom and dad got all dressed up in all white and went to a party far far away.  My people looked so beautiful in their white clothes I wanted to share them with you because, even though I haven't seen them yet, I'll bet those new outfits aren't as white as they were when mom left home.

,

Mom said that dad was the MOST HANDSOME ever even though he sometimes resembled an Ice cream truck man or a fancy waiter in his all white suit, but she loved that look and kept trying to get dad to wait on her all night.  She told me she even offered him a nice tip but I'm not sure how that all worked out.  Sometimes, when they do that kind of silly talk it gets crazy here and then I have to go into my crate because dad says he needs some "alone time with mom" and I think it ends up in some sort of tickling/wrestling/chasing game and it is just what puppies love do to do so I never understand why I can't be in it with them cause I am the best ever at that game but I just wait in the crate.

Anyway, I'm going to training classes and have learned that I get the BEST TREATS ever when I do something called SIT, DOWN and race to mom when she calls my name.  Mom is learning so much about me too!  I have discovered that jumping on her isn't the best thing ever, so if I just go up behind her and poke her in the butt with my nose, that works!  Sometimes my teeth go crazy and they just can't help it so they NEED to take just a tiny nibble, and that isn't good, so I've been working with my brain to get control of my teeth which is really really hard for a puppy.

So now I'm six months old and dad wants me to be allowed to sleep in bed with them, and mom is saying NO! Sometimes, she lets me sleep there till dad falls asleep then when she is ready to sleep, like a long long time later, she takes me to my crate which is ok with me.  Mom says that if I sleep in bed with them, she won't have any space and will never get any sleep. Yesterday, I tried to prove her wrong, but dad took up so much space and is so hot that I have to be on mom's side cause she is small and leaves cool spots. 

The next thing I know, she is hovering over me and I hear her telling dad "this is ridiculous!  Both of you have been in bed less than 5 minutes and BOTH of you are dreaming, twitching and moaning in your sleep!"  Dad an I just laid there....I mean...we hear her and everything but it is way better to just pretend you are asleep and let her calm down on her own.  Puppies know about sending out "calming signals" - mom has a whole book on them. . . 

I gotta go.  It seems mom found out that I tore a big hole in my bed and pulled out all the foamy stuff and now she is saying stuff very quietly and marching around the kitchen picking up what looks like a foam factory tragedy.  Time for a nap - hope you have the best day ever!   

xox - Ardie the Shredder Strikes Again

Pupdate from the Crate: I MUST SHRED!!

Happy Monday!  Today is the best day ever!  It is cool and quiet here at home and that gets me so excited that I can't seem to sit still!  Mom is giving you two pictures today.  The first one is so that you will see me calm and sweet and that helps mom with the rest of my day when I am....well...hell on wheels and full of something she calls piss and vinegar even though I pee as much as I can to not be full of anything, but I guess I am.

So, in case you missed it, over the weekend I got to do a photo shoot!  Yep!  My own modeling session and I was GRRRRREAT!  I think they even have a picture of me being SUPER ARDIE! flying through the air, but I have wait for something called "a development" then I will know.  But do you see my kiss marks?  Well how it happened was I was going down the drive to the car and dad asked mom if she kissed me and mom said no, why, and dad said well....the dog has lipstick marks on his eyebrow so maybe he's been monkeying around on your make up....and I wasn't, so mom scrubbed and scrubbed it off.  Then, when we got to the photographer, she told him about it and he LOVED it so much he asked her to smooch me all over again at the end and then this is what happened.  Dad says I look wounded..

.And there I am on my cool mat.  It is wonderful  and cools me right down but today I was already cool so I decided to play with my mat and then I remembered that today was SHREDDING MONDAY, Monday, MONDAY!  So I quickly went nuts on it and chomped a big hole right in the middle before mom took it away and now I can't have it.  It was supposed to be bite proof, so I must have SUPER Ardie teeth!  Ta da!  

And then I just went nuts on everything I could get my teeth on even though mom tried to play tug with me, tried to chase me, tried to play ball with me and gave me a yummy Kong filled with steak bits.  The carpets kept calling me....saying...Arrr...deee....ArrrDEE!  Come here boy, we have loose threads....help us please!  

So the next picture is how I tried to help the front door carpet, and then I tried to help the kitchen carpet and I tried to help the patio door rug, so on the way Dad's shoe called me and I took it with me and then I got distracted and went to my treat puzzle.  Wow!  Just that fast!  I love my treat puzzle and I can work it like a champ!  But now, after I find all the treats, I taught myself how to throw this big wooden toy in the air to see if anything else might bust lose and all it does is make mom grumpy so now, today, I just decided to chew it apart....just like that...and she still got grumpy and took it away.

So, now it's my nap time, and I'm so exhausted.  I wouldn't be near as tired if mom didn't always follow me  and make me do something else.  If I could just take care of one carpet in a single sitting, well, that could keep me busy for a long long time and mom would not have to chase me!  I also told her that maybe instead of toys, she should just buy more rugs!  Seems like a great SUPER ARDIE idea to me!

I'm getting ready to go spend the weekend with Aunt Margie cause mom and dad are going to some big party in Cincinnati where they have to wear all white...yeah...just like me!  Mom wants to find a white wig, and a white mask....what kind of party is this?  Oh well, I'll have more fun at my Auntie's house and maybe can learn to swim too while I'm there and maybe sleep on her bed again but I will have to think of a way to trick her into thinking I'm sad or scared, or maybe I'll just jump on her bed and then go all rubbery and she will be like "oooh, this little doggy is wayyyy to heavy for me to pick up...he is wayyyyy to soft and cuddly to sleep in a hard crate....he is going to be soooooo sad sleeping alone" and then BOOM! I'm in bed!  

So, have a beautiful day and I hope you get to shred anything you want today, and that no one chases you off of it!    Xox Ardie, I"m too sexy for my tail" super model shredding machine

Pupdate from the Crate: My Trainer Kissed Me on THE LIPS!

Happy Friday everyone!  Yesterday I had the best day ever!  It all started with having cottage cheese for breakfast, a WHOLE BOWL!  Yeah, and I got it myself!  To tell the truth, it was actually mom's breakfast, but the phone rang and she had to do some business stuff and go to dad's office for some numbers.  Well, she was gone so long I thought she wasn't ever coming back and I said to myself that she will find some other food wherever she has gone off to and so I should eat this before it spoils and stinks up the house so I did.

But it turns out she really wasn't gone all that far or all that long (it seemed like less than 30 seconds but my puppy brain thought it was 2 days) and when she came back to the family room she saw me finishing it all up.  I was a good dog because I took the bowl to my place on the carpet and didn't mess up her work stuff, and....get this....I even cleaned up every little bit I got one carpet!  BOOM!  😋😋😋. How's that for amazing?

Then I went to my first training class and I met a new lady who is teaching mom how to use a clicker on me.  So, I finally found out where that came from!  But it was super cool there!  It was a giant room and I could go look all around and then I saw it....a GIANT dog was on the wall staring at me so I barked and barked and barked to say 'GIANT DOG!! GIANT DOG!!! stop it!  I am going to have my mom use her clicker on you and she will click your giant face away from me RIGHT NOW!'  But it turns out it was just a picture of a dog and everything was ok.

The trainer lady was pretty!  I tried to jump on her and get her to love me up but she didn't even look at me.  How is that possible?  While I was trying to figure out how she could resist me, a hotdog piece fell on the floor in front of my nose!  Yum-eeee!  Then another.  Then I realized they were coming from the lady and I started to look at her and watch her.  We did a ton of fun stuff and my big thing was that I'm now learning "down" with the command and clicker.  CLICKERS ROCK!  Every time I hear it I get the best treat ever!

Then all of a sudden, it happened.  That first unexpected kiss!  The trainer was a little embarrassed, because she told mom that she NEVER kisses a dog other than her own, and NEVER EVER on the first date!  I was just standing there, looking deeply into her eyes and sending her love messages from my brain (the hot dogs were making me all stupid...good thing I didn't have to drive home) and SHE leaned out and smooched me right on the kisser!  Hot diggity dog!  I got all spinning and flippy and tried to jump on her but the clicker was calling me and I just sat waited for the best treat ever to come to me.  I'm thinking I need to get my own clicker.....

So, here is a picture of me playing with my toy bin.  I love my toy bin because it is stuck to a wire rim with Velcro!  And you know what happens when you pull Velcro apart, right?  It makes the most coolest best noise in the world and it also buzzes my mouth a little too!  You see how I hook my teeth under the flap?  Well....I love pulling that apart a ton of times every day.

Oh yeah, and about my best treats ever, well, I'm kinda worried about if they are safe in the fridge or not.  Mom makes them special for me.  She cuts turkey hot dogs into tiny bits then microwaves them until they get hard and kinda rubbery.  Then she chops up cheese into tiny bits and mixes it up in there and put it in baggies and then in the fridge.  Well, what worries me is dad.  I saw him grab a bag and start off with it toward his TV spot and then he looked at mom and said "WHAT???Are these for the dog or something?"  Maybe mom should make him his own and put his name on his Baggie.

Have the best weekend ever and let me know if anyone ever ate their puppy treats by mistake.  Mom says she never did, but once she put butt cream on her toothbrush because it was in a tube that looked like toothpaste and she was tired....

Xox Ardie the Best Kisser Ever!

Pupdate from the Crate: Is Ardie part giant hamster?

Good morning everyone!  Thanks for sending me wishes to help me with my staph infection in my delicate area and after those prayers and my shot, things are healing, so pretty soon when I'm licking my pee pee it will be just for fun.....or whatever.....not for boo boos.

Today, mom had to stay home with me instead of going fabric shopping with her friends because I can't go with other dogs till next week.  And she said that's ok, because she has a TON of fabric and really doesn't need to buy any more, because the strange part is that most of the stuff she's made lately came from something called a "free table" at her meetings and isn't it funny how that works out? Uh no.  Doesn't seem funny to me that she spends money on fabric so it can sit on a shelf and then she uses stuff she got for free......But I've learned just to be quiet and listen sometimes.

So, then, I had an idea that to keep her busy and keep her mind off of not going to Detroit to the Edsel Ford home and Habermans Fabric store (one of THE BEST EVER), I decided to play a game with her that she calls "clean up clean up everybody clean up!"  It even has its own song she sings so it must make her super happy to do it.  Because I'm so little yet, I only know how to do the first part of the game, and mom says that Emma the Aussie was the only one who knew how to do the last part so I might never learn that,   Besides, she seems to like that part so I might always let her do it.

Do you see my pictures?  Look at me go!!  I made my entire head invisible in this game!  

Since Mom was in a bit of a funk, I decided this needed to be a BIG game of Clean UP so I needed a big box!  I think it is hysterical that the box is named CHEWY!  Hahahaaha!!  So I did!!!  My food and treats come in boxes like that, and this one was so big I could even stand inside of it while I played.  That box sat on the floor by the door for FIVE DAYS and I left it alone until I needed it!  HAH!  Now mom has a lot to do today to keep her mind off of not going to the best place ever with her best friends ever.  But, she loves me and said that it is more important to stay with me.

So, now you see what my amazing powerful Ardie jaws of destruction can do!  Dad told mom to look at my DNA test again and see if I might be part giant hamster (because those are real, we see them on the internet sometimes).  You know how hamsters love, love, love to chew up paper stuff right? 

That is funny from dad because he wasn't even here yesterday when I helped mom with the groceries.  Yep, I helped unwrap the new package of toilet paper and then later, I got the container of paper towels down and tried to get them out of their wrapper too.  I'm not sure mom likes me helping, so when I got to the paper towels, and I heard mom coming, I zipped off to the family room and put my head in my toy basket really fast, like "hey! What's in the bottom of my toy basket! and she just thought the paper towels fell off the counter and slid into the other room when the earth tilted off its axis for a split second.  I heard that can happen, with global warming and all.  . .

The other day, dad told mom that my shredding skills are becoming so widely known that he got a call at his office from REPUBLIC services (our recycling company) and he told mom they wanted to hire me!  Isn't that super cool!  Poor mom, she was so confused....how did they know that about me?,she asked, and then asked dad:"SERIOUSLY?" but dad does that to her a lot and when she finally gets it was a joke, she uses her disgusted voice and says OH BEN! to him!!  I just watch and laugh inside my head!  My people are a riot.

So mom says my DNA doesn't show any giant hamster in it and she says that even though it doesn't show a definite border collie, I am sure beginning to look like one more and more each day.  Mom also says that we are going to training class tomorrow to help us learn stuff like not jumping on people, staying off the counters, and how to stop me from turning off my ears when I am having the best time ever chasing or shredding things.

Mom has been using a clicker-thing in my general direction when she gives me the BEST TREATS EVER and neither of us can really figure out how it's supposed to work yet.  But I do know that I like it because my mouth goes crazy for the best treats ever and I sit so still and wait like a good boy.  Mom is worried about what she will do when she doesn't have that clicker-thing or the best treats ever?  

Maybe Dad will need to buy her a special silver clicker-thing she can wear as a necklace?  I don't know.  I've also heard her trying to make the clicky noise with her mouth, just in case...what a riot.....but it keeps her busy even if it doesn't sound anything the same to me.  I'll let the teacher talk to mom about that.

So last but not least, here is a picture of me sleeping on mom's bed with her for a nap. She tried to get in that picture with me for a selfie, but I didn't want her breathing on me so I had to keep schooching away and get her off of me so she got fussy and just took this one finally. Moms!  When we are sleeping they go all kissy-face on us and lovey-dovey and huggy. Boy - we need our sleepy space, puh-lease!  It's a good thing I'm getting too big for my mom to fit inside my crate with me. . .anymore. . .

Well, I have to go rest.  My jaws are tired and mom says she needs some "time to herself" today so we both hope you are all having the BEST DAY EVER and will TTYL!   (hah!  I'm growing up so much I now use acronyms - Talk To You Later for the little puppies in the audience!)

xox Ardie the Distractor Goff  

(sorry to talk so fast I don't do commas and good language stuff because I have to go fast or the words disappear and mom wants you to hear them just the same way I say them to her otherwise the story would be boring like this:  Apologies for the lack of proper punctuation.  Ardie is a dog.  He ate, he pooped, he tore up a box.  I had to clean it up.  See?  Boring and dull.  Puppies write way cooler than people!)

Pupdate from the Crate: what a weekend

Hi everyone!  This has been a busy weekend around our house and I'm busy too!  I am learning new things, like how fast bunnies really are, and how slow moms and dads are.  It was my first bunny chase ever!  So it all started out with me going into the pool area where dad was showing mom how clean he made the cement with his power washer. It was my first time to see the pool without the cover and I found out that there is water in it!  So, I went on the first step down that was dry and I started to take one more step down and my foot got wet which made me INSANE so I flew out of the pool and launched into the best case of the zoomies ever!

And then while I was speeding around, my SUPER ARDIE eyes saw the far end pool gate open and before you could say SUPER ARDIE!! I jetted right out that gate, far far from my people and I landed right next to a bunny!  Well, there was some screaming and yelling going on back at the pool and I think it was GO SUPER ARDIE GO! But maybe it wasn't.  So anyway, that little bunny was so wound up he took off like crazy so I chased him down the drive and into the deep deep woods of the neighbors yard!  It was the best bunny chase ever except I might have made mom and dad have heart attacks.

And mom says she RAN down the drive calling me, and dad said it was more like a fast walk, and mom swore she ran but dad said nope, they didn't run.  Maybe their jets are broken, but anyway I got stuck in the weeds and tall brush and came squirting out right by mom and she captured me before I could find the bunny.  So much for that excitement.

But yesterday I got to go visit my cousin dog Murray at his house and I'm almost as big as him now!  Mom took pictures to show you.  I'm the white skinny one and Murry is the fatter black dog and he has no tail!  Mom says he's a wiggle butt!  I challenged him to a race around the shed and he never saw it coming!  I revved up my SUPER ARDIE jets and got low to the ground and blasted off.  I was screaming "eat my dust wiggle butt boy!" and he almost caught me the first three or four times around the shed, but he never ever did!  Sometimes mom saw me come blasting out the front, but no Murray chasing me!  She was really worried he was having a heart attack behind the shed, but he was just going slow.  I guess he's just too chubby to keep up....

And then there is this rash I have been licking on my....well....on my....pee pee....and I have some sores there that mom has been trying to fix.  I think something bit me, or maybe I got onto a plant but I got these little itchy blisters RIGHT THERE and they make me insane and my mouth HAS TO LICK.  So mom makes it a ton better by using some E-sencial oils on me with some special cream and I feel so much better.  At first it was stinky to me, but now I like it.  When I smell the oil cream coming, with mom on the other end, I just lay down and flop over so she can get me lubed up good.  She was telling dad about it and I think he likes the way mom takes care of me!  He said "well, heck honey, I'd roll over and let you do that to me all day long too!"  He must not have a rash on his...uh you-know-what because mom used her disgusted voice and and gave him THE look.

Today was another sad day and prayer day for us because mom said another beautiful dog went to heaven.  She has been telling me to say prayers a lot this last month or so.  Something big must be happening up in heaven for all these special dogs to be leaving here and going there, that is all I can think.  Mom said some were sick but some some were not and no matter which way, it is really the hardest think about dogs, is that they leave faster than most people do.  So I want the people to feel better and I stayed quiet during our memorial time and even though I wanted to bust out through the kitchen window screen after my bug friends, I didn't.  (Sometimes I try that when I play with them!)

This week we had a painter here, the pool guys, and the Mosquito Joe guys, and baby fawn left after two weeks of giving mom a stomach ache worrying, and the guy was not even named Joe who does the mosquito stuff, more like Mark or something, and the pool won't be ready till dad can fix it, but at least he didn't catch on fire when the power washer got so smokey we could not see him, so it all turned out to be a good weekend.

I'm tired.  Xox Ardie the Amazing Rabbit Chaser