I'm Back

my favorite pillow
Goldens all over it

Know I haven't blogged in a bit, but then life hasn't been too interesting...matter of fact, it's been boring but things are picking up again. Maybe it was boring because Mom and Dad had what they call "summer colds" and then they did things like Father's Day at Pat's, Elizabeth's birthday, Tori, Annie, and Maddie's birthday...don't they know it's all about me?

Our friend Sarah came over last week and that was pretty cool, she and Mom were working on a project but I can't show you or tell you about it because Sarah's giving it to someone as a surprise. When Sarah came over, Ace got to come in the house and meet Monty.  That was pretty cool and everyone behaved themselves.  Ace snooped around and finally found one of Mom's treat stashes so, of course, he got some goodies...it's because of his nice smile. Ray didn't get to come in because he's young and "in tact" whatever that means. He's getting beautiful so he can go to a dog show.  GO RAY!


Atlas





Titan



Mom went over to Eastern Washington for her sister's birthday and I didn't get to come...that is so not fair!  I was in charge while she was gone but that didn't seem to do any good, I still didn't get to sleep free but I did give Dad a bit of grief about putting me in my crate. Mom said she met some really big dogs that are slobbery but nice and belong to her nephew.  They would have loved to have me come I'm sure, but it didn't happen. Maybe next time.



tracking



Today is Mom's birthday and she's had lots of birthday wishes. Since it's her special day, I decided to eat again for her.  Hadn't been eating well for a couple of days and of course, no input=no output. Then I ate all my dinner last night, some of my breakfast and did 2 big "you know whats". That made her happy!  Doesn't take much! They took me up to the neighbor's long field this morning to run a couple of tracks and just after the start of the first one there was this great smelling stuff...it looked like little round raisens so I started rolling in it...oowee, Mom didn't like that!  Kind of distracting because then I put my nose in the air and could smell the animals that left it in the field.  Mom said I've seen them before at Granny's and to just get on with the "find it", soo I got back to work after a few more exploratory sniffs.  They had put corners on the track but no flags to tell me where they were. Couldn't fool me, at least not for long. The big yellow lab in the yard next door kept barking at me and the chocolate puppy sat at the fence and watched...I hope she learned something. Did have to stop and get their scents before I finished the track This is all about sniffing things out you know.

got it

We're at the beach and it's pretty nice.  Mom's been picking strawberries (that's wrecking her manicure) and Dad's getting weeds cut today so he can spend the next 2 getting ready for crab season to start.  He's got the boat and pots ready so I don't know what else he has to do.  Maybe he wants me to go out and help set the pots and then pull them in.  I haven't been swimming enough to do that yet.  Sure hope he catches lots of crab because that will make him very happy. We will stay here until the fireworks bugs Monty and then either go home or maybe up to Granny's house where it might not scare him so much if we close all the windows.

Until next time,

                                                     Juno





Summer IS Coming

Monty trying to be scarey

We've been pretty busy.  While we were at the beach I went to the Farmer's Market, we had visitors, I went tracking and made a new friend...even went for a swim.  On Saturday we went to the Kingston Farmer's Market with Aunt Jacqui.  That was pretty cool because there were lots of dogs all over the place.  I'm sure I was the cutest and most well behaved.  Somebody was selling homemade dog treats and you know Mom's a sucker for that kind of stuff.  The lady offered me a sample...but guess what!  It wasn't to my liking so Mom bought a treat to take home for Monty.

Elizabeth's friends

 Pat (that's Mom and Dad's son) brought one of my girls over on his sailboat...not just EJ but 7 other 8th grade girls too.  They had a lot of fun and even went in the water and then in the hot tub!  Lots of squealing and giggling. It really wasn't much fun for Monty and me because we were locked up most of the time but we were really good and that was a help for the adults. The girls came on the best day of the weekend. Then on Monday we had more visitors.  Annie and Michael came with Glory and Savvy. I met Savvy last summer and she's a pretty cool Porti. Glory wasn't feeling so hot so she didn't get to come out of the car and visit. Hope she's better by now.
                       

my tracking bucket

You know this tracking stuff is getting pretty serious.  Mom made a neat little bucket so we can keep all my tracking stuff in one place...only thing is she has to put a note on top so she remembers to put in the treats. One day we went up to Buck Lake with Val, JoJo and Sidney.  Dudley was there but he had to sit in the car.  JoJo did a great track and Sidney got to be introduced to tracking.  She's going to get it, I just know it.  Then last Tuesday we went to a brand new place in Poulsbo with Val, Pam (Farley's mom) and Anne who is a friend of Sarah's and really nice.  Her dog, Lucy, already has a TD and she's working toward a TDX.  There were 5 dogs tracking altogether so we needed a lot of room. This was the first time I've been with such a big group and it meant I had to wait my turn.  Never had to wait long before...Mom said that it's good for me because if I ever make it to a test I may have to wait a couple of hours. Did a lot of complaining in the car just to show my annoyance. Since my track was the least complicated, I was last and didn't do very well. Mom had been talking about the last track we had run and how I was trotting to the end and really had my nose in it.  You know you just can't let them get too confident...gotta throw a curve ball every once in awhile.  The next day we went back to Buck Lake; Dad laid a track that I was really into...I'm pretty used to tracking him so it was a piece of cake.

Pam, Lucy, Anne

swimming at Buck Lake

The day we went to Buck Lake we really went so I could swim.  I'd only done a little "kind of" swimming last year and Mom wants me to work on it so my muscles will get stronger and I get my balance in the water. I prefer the water to be warmer than  Puget Sound.  As you can see from the pictures, I'm wearing a blue collar...belonged to one of the previous golden boys. Mom didn't want to get my rolled leather collar wet and had forgotten my nylon one...wonder if she's forgetting lots of stuff. She's getting up there in age, you know.  Anyway it wasn't too bad and I did OK...they threw some dried lamb in the water and I had to swim to get it but I didn't go out too far...left some in the water for the ducks.

spring Clam Tree

Remember the Clam Tree at the beach?  You can really tell that the season has changed.


That's it for now...

                          Juno