Sensitivity and getting point across

OK, where do I begin.  Well, this is my best friend Jake or Jake man as I like to call him.  Mommy helped take care of Jake for the neighbors (and friends) back in Maryland when we lived there.  He was a puppy and they both worked all day so mommy volunteered to take Jake out a couple times a day to help them out and she brought him over to play with me.  Well I fell in love and Jake loved me too.  If you read older posts you can see the love we have for one another.  Sadly they moved away and Jake man was no longer my next door neighbor friend.  He is now a long distance friend.

I am saddened by the fact he is no longer available for early evening romps and play sessions.  I lost a tooth because of him, and well mommy too I mean what was she thinking throwing up the ball directly between Jake and I??  Of course we both jumped up in the air at the same time to get the ball and our teeth crashed and I lost one because of that.  Good going mommy!  But you can not tell I am missing one when I smile.  Since they left mommy has taken me to meet other dogs and at the dog park I have tried to meet other dogs but it appears it is not as easy to make new friends like it was back home.

I do not know if it is because I am older and maybe all the young dogs just think I can not keep up with the pack or if they think I am not hip enough, who knows. But I am very friendly and I try my best to make friends.  I use the normal greetings a little sniff here and there and sometimes they sniff back and we seem to get along and we play well and socialize well but then they are so hard to read.  It is as if I get a friendly signal and then WHAM!  Kind of feels like I got smacked in the face with rejection and I always thought of myself as a nice enough dog to where maybe another dog may actually be a little kinder in getting their point across when rejecting me but hey, there is nothing like getting smacked up side the head or barked at to know my place.  Mommy says maybe in a few months we can take a weekend trip up to New York and see Jake man, mommy wants to see Jakes mommy and the new addition to the family.  I really do dream of Jake man...so miss him.

But well, I guess in life when you do make good friends you just learn how to truly value them as mommy says not everyone you meet will be as a good or nice a friend as you had before or had hoped the new one would be so always value the friends in your life.  Always try too to make new friends and if they do not turn out to be as nice as you had hoped then move on, sometimes new friends do not want to even be a friend and you need to learn that and if it is a social friendship such as meeting occasionally at the dog park and the occasional polite tail wag and sniff occurs then take it for what it is and maybe in time I will make a new friend who wants to hang with me and play with me and not slap me upside the head with a loud bark when all I am doing is trying to be a friend??  But in the meantime, I am not going to put forth any effort at the dog park and only go there to do the occasional play time with mommy and relish in the memory of the best friend I have ever had Jake Man, and hope mommy takes me to see him soon because I really miss him.  He was the love of my life, and yes dogs of the same sex can love one another, nothing wrong with that!!!

Yeah, yeah, yeah so we sleep together.

OK, so mommy caught us, no big deal!  What else does she think we are going to do while she is at work or out doing errands or having fun.  My sister and I sleep together.  Actually it is rather rare, but I mean at night we all sleep with mommy.  She, meaning my sis, has taken to sleeping with me during the day too.  She used to be a little confused by me when I first arrived.  

I can still feel the sting of her claw across my little puppy nose. I am still slightly hesitant around her, not fully able to relax.  You can see it in this photograph, I am alert still.  Mommy laughs at me as she says Mandy just wants to be friends now. She is 15 and I am 11.5 so it is OK now mommy says she mellowed out.  I find it hard to believe.  Mommy says people and animals change and it is only fair to give them a chance.  No one is perfect, Mandy did not understand at the time what she was doing "right mommy" and she loves me now and wont hurt me.  Sure, hmmf, not sure actually.  Mommy says she sees the change in Mandy as Mandy always comes up and rubs up against me now, in the beginning she came up and hissed or took a paw to me.  So yeah maybe she has changed.

I guess stranger things have happened.  I suppose I could relax around her.  Mommy is big on giving people second chances because as she says everyone has a story.  And we all at one time or another have been judged wrongly or labeled or what ever.  I guess my sister has had a change of heart towards me so I can give her a second chance but she better not hog the bed again tonight as that is my job!  Poor mommy has a very sore throat so I may ease up on hogging the bed as she is under the weather, that is the least I can do for her since I do not have thumbs and can not make her tea.  But I can give her tons of wet dog kisses!! Yeah just what she needs LOL!!!!

My new fence, and oasis

Well mommy finally had a fence put up for me.  The things, many, many things she does for me.  OK, lets not kid ourselves she does these things for herself too but I do reap the benefits.  Although the fence was truly the main reason she had it put up.  And I am glad she did.  The previous owner of the house created this rather peaceful oasis of sorts in the back yard.  She had a green thumb for sure. Ha, mommy sure doesn't.  But the saving grace here is the plants were already well established.  Mommy should not be able to kill these, God help her.  She does not have a green thumb, but her mom sure did.  She actually grew two trees one from a  lemon seed, and the other from an orange seed.  Mommy has yet to try it, huh, I have a great idea of mommy.  She has been trying to think of what she can plant in honor of her mother's memory and how fitting would it be if she actually planted an orange seed and it grew!!!!!  AWESOME IDEA!!! Now to try and figure out to get mommy to do this.  I can not speak so I am going to be left to come up with a rather interesting ploy or tactic to introduce the idea to her.  She has oranges from when she made orange chicken, I am so waiting for her to venture onto a new recipe already (not that it is not good, but she seems to stick with things when they are good and needs to explore a little more and broaden her horizons) maybe I will play with an orange on the floor, chew into it really hard and squirt out a seed and hopefully if I position the attempt just right, the seed will hit her in the face and get her attention.  Just a thought.  It has to hit her so she will notice it, come on already.  I was not going to do it to be mean, unlike when I hog the bed at night when she forgets to walk me, oh yeah I let her know when I am upset but this is just my attempt to get her to come up with the idea on her own.

Her mother loved her orange tree and lemon tree so this would be fitting for her to do.  But back to the fence.  Yes, I do love my fence now.  I can walk around and enjoy the yard and the way the yard was established I can see where it is a haven of sorts for mommy.  She likes to sit by the pond in the evenings and sip a glass of wine while listening to the water fall.  I sit out there with her and roam the fence, see this is where the fence is a blessing for mommy.  She can sit near the pond and sip her wine and not have to hold onto my leash and I can roam about freely.  She does worry though that I may jump into the pond.  OK, so I thought about it a time or two but wont do it.  Today we are just hanging in the house doing minor repairs and putting up curtain rods.  Mommy would hire a handyman but she is really burned out right now with trying to hire anyone because it seems she has hired every crack head in Ohio, at least according to her friend who says he never met anyone who had more bad luck with contractors than her.  And she has had many a bad luck.  But anyway, she will attempt most things herself then go from there if need be.

She enjoys doing things on her own, she gets a sense of accomplishment from it.  So this is really going to be a tough choice with how to get her to come up with the orange tree on her own, which again is why the seed needs to hit her in the face, I will try and miss her eye.  LOL, maybe, depends if she makes me mad this day or not.  I do love her, but I just want her all to myself.  Well, I can hear her down there trying to find the tape measure and screw driver so she can put up the curtain rods, better go help in any way I can.  

Belly dancing

Oh my goodness, what was mommy thinking!  Talk about a party getting out of hand, and talk about some fun!!  Mommy had some co-workers and new neighbors over for a party and it was a party.  Somehow mommy got in her head to advise all guests that everyone had to take a turn at belly dancing and she handed them her belly dancing hip scarf, a tambourine, and some finger symbols and three guests actually did it. Included one male, then the next thing I know after Julie's fiance was done belly dancing I ended up with the hip scarf tied around my hips and I went at it.  I showed them all how to really belly dance, giving it the proper hip shake and shimmy!!  When I was done, I received a standing ovation and I deserved it.  Mommy laughed so hard she doubled over.  Actually everyone laughed but I was proud as I knew they were all jealous as I am a great dancer.  The party was fun, it was our first party in the new house.  We really love our neighborhood as it has sidewalks.

No more dodging cars on walks and sharing the road with other walkers, now we share a sidewalk and have no worries.  I have not written in a while because since January mommy was very busy looking for a house and was always on the computer researching areas and homes and I just gave her her space.  But now that we are both settled and she is not on the computer as much I will have my luxury once again and keep up on current happenings and adventures and experiences because I always have them.  Well time for me to go get mommy and take her on a walk.  She was good today so she deserves a nice walk around the neighborhood...