Chloë Loves the Snow

Poised for the next throw.

We finally got some snow this week. Areas at higher elevations got a lot of it, but here at sea level we only got enough to coat the trees, meadows and parade ground in the park one afternoon. There was just enough  snow for kids to sled down the hill below the chapel (a must to avoid, as far as I’m concerned) and just enough for me to lose my ball several times. But hey, we still have that same blue ball today, so it wasn’t lost for too long before it was found. Digging around for it in the snow was fun, too,  so we all enjoyed our snowy walk until I took off into a deep thicket and got my leash caught on blackberry stalks, something that hadn’t happened to me in years. After much futile calling, Heather finally found me, waded in and untangled me. That was the end of my snow day freedom. It was fun while it lasted.

Bringing back the ball.

Chloë of the North.

 

The next afternoon the weather changed. Suddenly the sun came out, and there was a brilliant sunset.

South Meadow, Discovery Park.

Of the winter’s toughest storm to date, all that remained in the park was this giant snowball. I surveyed it only from afar. That glow was creepy.

Giant Snowball.

 

Chloë Revisits the Rock

Fetching along the hatchery path.

Nearly every day since Christmas it’s been “raining like stink,” as Heather likes to say, but we went for a walk every afternoon anyway. Most days we walked in the park, but sometimes we walked to the library or Magnolia Village and back instead. On a couple of days we caught a break: The rain stopped or slowed to a drizzle, or the sun broke through for an hour or two. Then the wind picked up and the rain started again. Even when wasn’t  raining, the ground stayed  muddy.  The towels stationed near the front door to wipe me down when I come inside get quite a workout. So do the washing machine (for the towels) and eventually the bathtub (for me).

One day it stopped raining long enough for us to drive to Carkeek Park. I’m not sure we had been there sincelast spring, when my good pal Charlie moved to St. Louis. Not only were there good trails and new scents to explore, but we also visited two of my favorite places for fetch: the path to the salmon hatchery and “the Rock,” where Charlie and I perfected our carom toss and return.

Chloë on the Rock in better days.

They tried valiantly, but neither Heather nor Mike could execute this delicate maneuver as well as Charlie. Even though he never would never give me any treats (except of course the bagsful he gifted me at Christmas and for my birthday), I miss Charlie. He was a skilled and dependable thrower. Now, just like the Mariners, I’m stuck here in Seattle with Triple-A level hurlers. I guess I’ll have to make do.

 

Chloë Spreads Holiday Cheer

Sammy and Chloë

Just a day after Mike and Heather returned from their trip, my aunt Sammy came to visit. She was here to listen to some poet she follows, so we didn’t get to hang out with her as much as I usual. But her visit still paid off, as she and Heather made a macaroni and cheese recipe that provided excellent plate-licking material for a good week after she left. I would have preferred an encore, but she left anyway.

Beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Mike finally got around to hauling up the holiday decorations from the garage, and he was very proud of himself for expanding the number of lights and areas covered. Heather installed permanent hooks for our stockings under the mantel, so they will hold more weight, which is always a good thing as far as I’m concerned. However, seeing my favorite singing Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer hanging high in a corner where I couldn’t get close enough to lust after it did not sit well with me. I gave the decorations a big yawn (see photo).

Stocking up on rawhide

My mood brightened on Christmas Day, especially when my stocking was unloaded (on the couch no less, where I am never allowed except on very special occasions) with assorted treats and toys from my Syracuse aunts Susie and Debby, including rawhide sticks that look and taste like candy canes. I haven’t had much rawhide since my titanium crown was installed, so I particularly treasured these treats. After I unloaded my stocking it was Heather’s turn, and she got several different kinds of chocolate, which of course she won’t be sharing with me because chocolate can be deadly to dogs. Even I know that!

Content of Mike’s stocking

Finally, it was Mike’s turn, and guess what was in his stocking? Nothing but coal! Two lumps! I guess we know who hadn’t been nice enough to the girls around here.

My best gift this Christmas came from my new best dog friend Schatzi, who came over to visit on Christmas Eve and brought me a holiday gingerbread house stuffed with squeaky toys: a gingerbread man, a Christmas tree and a candy cane. It’s lots of fun to pull all the squeaky toys out of the gingerbread house and leave them around the floor so Mike can lean down, grumble, pick them up and stuff them inside the little house again. The house is good for tugging, too, and I’m making sure that Mike knows it.

Chloe Inspects gift from Schatzi.

Anyhow, Schatzi has her own gingerbread house over at her place, so we quickly got bored with my present and started wrestling instead. I’ll get back to the present it when she goes home.

 

 

Chloë Stays with Her New Best Pal

Vacation greetings.

Mike and Heather went away somewhere right after Thanksgiving. I didn’t ask any questions, because my personal “staycation” was fine. They dropped me off at my new best pal Schatzi’s house, which was a lot more fun  for me than traipsing around somewhere with them. I knew I made the right choice when I saw the photo greeting they sent from whatever beach they were on. Just looking at those waves smashing onto the shoreline was enough to make me hide under a warm blanket.

Playing with Schatzi’s bear.

At Schatzi’s house, I was a lot more comfortable. I had stayed there previously, before Schatzi arrived on the scene, and as long as she continued to accept me as the boss whenever I was there, I was fine with her being around. We had lots of fun together. First of all, Schatzi had great toys, which of course she never paid any attention to until I showed an interest. It’s good for those toys to feel wanted.

Sharing Chloë’s bed

I also liked Schatzi’s bed, which I had tried when Schatzi stayed at our house a couple of weeks ago. As soon as I got to her house, I climbed right in. Schatzi then decided to lie down in the bed I brought, and we starred at each other for a while. Then we started getting into the same bed together, and juggled beds and toys for the next several days. Eventually, however, I asserted my dominance as queen of the beds. I always got first pick.

Schatzi and I also needed designated dining areas on opposite sides of a gate at the entrance to the kitchen. Schatzi caught on that I get a lot better menu (two kinds of kibble, eggs, yogurt, broth) than she does (kibble and yogurt). I can’t say as I blame her, but that’s her problem, and I’m not trading or sharing my meal with her. If that means dining in a gated community, so be it. As fast as she and I eat, it’s only a couple of minutes a day anyhow.

Designated dining areas: Two tables for one.

Another good thing about sleeping over at Schatzi’s house is that we get let out into the back yard without leashes. I’m sure that if I were left unsupervised  long enough I could find a way out, but so far somebody’s always got an eye on us, so they can see if  we are “doing our business. So I only got to sniff around inside the fence and roll around with Schatzi. Sometimes Caroline threw a ball back there, but while I chased the ball a couple of times, Schatzi only chased me. And some seagulls.

Rainy day garb didn’t go over well.

Our walks in the rain that week did not go so well. Caroline tried putting us in raincoats, but we were too embarrassed and demanded to go back inside. Then we had too much energy to burn and ran circles around the house.  We also had disagreements about access to the stairs that went to the lower level of the house, where the back yard door is. But that was minor; the only time we got into any real trouble was when Schatzi discovered the lower -hanging ornaments on the Christmas tree. When confronted with the evidence, a little paw-pointing ensued between us, but Caroline knew immediately that Schatzi was the culprit. My sole interest continues to be in Christmas cookies, not ornaments. And a few gifts would be nice, too.

 

 

 

 

Chloë Changes Her Bed

The audition: Head on bookcase, old bed close by.

My peanut bed, a.k.a “the little girl” bed, was getting pretty frayed on the bottom. It’s almost 10 years old, and so am I! It’s time we move to the next facet of our lives. Sleep will be even more important for us seniors!

When Schatzi stayed with us  few weeks ago, I really liked her bed, and when I stayed at Charlie’s house in August, I really liked Logan’s bed, and he wasn’t even there. They smelled good, and they were comfortable, so I just made myself at home.

So when Heather and Mike were food shopping at Fred Meyer the other day and walked past a giant display of dog beds on sale, Heather didn’t hesitate. It wasn’t quite what she was looking for, but it was close enough. She went for a blue one.

Eyeing the bedding improvements: bed cover and pillow.

She flopped it on the living room floor in the spot where my old bed used to be. The peanut bed moved around the corner, a couple of feet away, for two weeks, so I still had a choice. Just in case the new one wasn’t to my liking, I could always go back to what I knew.

So I tried it out. The blue bed was much roomier than my peanut bed and had higher pillows around the edge, but it didn’t get my nose quite high enough, and I started to use the adjacent bookcase as a pillow. In addition, the plush interior cushioning felt just a little too warm on my body. I briefly considered going back to the peanut bed.

All ready for a power nap.

That’s when Heather swooped in. She put a pillowcase over the bottom cushion, so the temperature inside the bed became just right. She put another pillowcase over a small camp pillow retrieved from a closet downstairs to make a new headrest for me. A couple of photos in the bookcase had to be displaced, but I didn’t know those people, so it was no skin off my nose.

Now I am extremely happy with my new accommodation, and really proud of Heather, the way she swung into action and demonstrated her hidden homemaking skills. Way to go, Heath! And since around here  we never like to throw anything away, Heather applied some new silver duct tape on the bottom of the peanut bed and placed it on the back seat of her car, where the two of us can roll on together for years to come.

Chloë Entertains Her Pals

Chloë (center) with her pal Charlie

I spent  most of the fall settling back into my old routines after the three-month journey to the East and back. I played a lot of Wiffie with Mike and fetch with Heather, although she declared my favorite spot, Chloë’s Lane, off limits after I ran away into the dense underbrush in pursuit of rabbits once too often.  I can’t blame her, but it’s just the hound in me.

So instead of visiting friends and being catered to, I’ve been the one playing host the past few weeks. First we had a long weekend visit from my best pal Charlie, who came all the way from St. Louis just to see me and eat some of Seattle’s best pizza. Charlie arrived just after Halloween, which may explain whey he dressed like some kind of black-clad commando when we took a walk in Discovery Park. When Mike took our picture, we blended well together.

Schatzi in her car seat

I also spent a lot of time with Schatzi, the dachshund puppy who belongs to Caroline, my personal financial adviser and sometime hotelier. Schatzi got a lot longer over the three months I was away, and each week she’s putting on  weight. Eventually she’ll weigh more than I do, but for now, I’m the alpha dog and plan to keep it that way. She gets in my face a lot, but I can still flip her over by her nose if she gets too bothersome.

Over the fall we took several long walks with Schatzi. When we went to the military cemetery I tried showing her how to fetch, but mostly she wanted to chase me, not the ball. We’ll work on it some more next time.

 

Dachshund Wrestling Federation.

Amazingly, since I generally don’t want to be around other dogs, especially puppies, I really like Schatzi. Two weeks ago Caroline and David dropped her off at our house with her crate and food, and she stayed with us for a whole weekend. Even though Schatzi arrived with one front paw bandaged because of a nail-clipping accident, we had a lot of fun hanging out, walking in the park and wrestling in the living room. Plus, she brought her own treats and dog bed with her, and I liked them all. Sure, she pooped in the house once and whined a bit at night, but as far as I’m concerned, Schatzi can stay with us anytime. I’m looking forward to a lot more of this.

 

 

 

 

 

Chloë Finds a Home on the Range

Just because I detailed some of the hazards of the road in my previous post, don’t get the idea that I didn’t enjoy it. In fact, after Heather learned to roll down my window whe we slowed down, I had all kinds of fun sticking my nose out and sniffing what this country is all about. It was interesting. One day I was herding buffalo…

Get along, li’l doggies, get along! Wind Cave National Park, SD

The next day it was cows. We rounded ’em up in the Black Hills, and not a moment too soon. Within a half hour the sky turned as black as the hills and a sudden and torrential rainstorm drove us from the road. The cattle were home by then.

Heading west, nearly every afternoon brought a spectacular sunset in the  western skies.

Valentine NWR, NE

We drove and walked through high desert and high mountain passes. (No large lakes or ocean, though, as I refuse to walk near waves.)

Bighorn Mountains, WY

I loved those wide-open spaces.  It’s nice to be home, but I’m ready to hit the road again.

Raring to roam.