What a strange week! First my Dad leaves for a whole bunch of darknesses, then suddenly my Mom does the same, leaving me to spend a couple of darknesses with my friend Riley and his two-leggers, Patty, James, Lola and Sam.

I had a nice time with my friend. And Patty and James were great. Riley and I took James for a couple of walks. Patty was very nice to me too, sticking close to me whenever I felt lonely. I even let James clean the hard white stuff out from between my toes. Lucky guy!

They have a nice house with plenty of cool places to lie down and sleep. I really enjoyed myself.

But thank goodness my Mom and Dad finally came home. Together even! I was so excited to see both of them. And they were pleased to see me. My Dad seems a bit sad right now and I'm not sure why. So I try to play with him as much as possible to cheer him up. Or sometimes I just lie beside him and lick his nose. That makes him feel good too.

Daddy's having problems and he's really frustrated. While my Blog is working perfectly, his blog (called "A Writer's Blog"), isn't. He doesn't know why but somehow it's been converted to a "php" file. So it doesn't work.

Don't ask me either. I don't know computers. He's asked me to write a quick blog post so that he can see what happens when it is published to the internet, to see what's different. So here goes. Wish him luck.

Tags: Golden Doodle

We've still got lots of fluffy white stuff (though now it's often brittle hard stuff) on the ground but it's warmer and sunnier by the day.

That's great for most things. I take my mom and dad for longer walks now and we play ball on the trails too. It's nicer to lie out on the back stoop and watch the world go by and there's always water around when I need a drink.

But let me tell you. Sometimes it's a little too hot! I still have my winter coat on and all it takes is a couple of minutes running and I am hot hot hot.

I'm going to have go to see my fur dresser soon before the temperature gets so high I can't go outside at all. I'm pretty fluffy at the moment. Great for the winter and the cold. But not so good now.

I guess I'll be sporting a new look soon.

Tags: Golden Doodle

Huge piles of fluffy white stuff that are no longer fluffy and not particularly white any more. The air no longer cold and me a little too warm in the my winter coat even when I'm outside the house.

Spring is coming. The fluffy white stuff is turning to liquid, then hardening at night, then turning to liquid again. The piles are slowly sinking but at least now they can support my weight. I climb on top and can see all the way down the street.

There are squirrels about too! Little tiny four leggers that run like the dickens and dart this way and that before disappearing up a tree. I love chasing them. My dad wonders what I would do if I ever caught one and it's my goal to show him one of these days. And the other night there was a really neat, strong smell up the street. So lovely. My mom kept using a word that sounded like "skonk" and she seemed really worried. She kept pulling me back when I tried to follow that yummy scent.

And then, as the fluffy white stuff disappears, all kinds of little smelly piles emerge where my fellow four leggers have left their sweet smelling logs. My mom and dad hate that. They have little brown bags that they use to pick up my sweet smelling logs whenever I leave them behind. Then the bag goes in a little can in the backyard which my dad empties out once a week into a bigger bag which he leaves at the side of the street for the two leggers in the big loud rolling thing to come to pick up.

My friend Riley eats the sweet smelling logs when he finds them. And he's really good at finding them. He'll dig and dig and dig through the white stuff, no matter how hard it is, to get to a sweet smelling log his nose has picked out.

Me, I don't like them so much. I tried one once, out behind the shed so my mom and dad couldn't see. Riley kept telling me I should try one, that all the cool four leggers eat them, that they won't hurt you no matter what the two leggers say. But my mom and dad have taught me to ignore peer pressure and make decisions for myself. So I say "No" to sweet smelling logs, no matter how cool you look with one in your mouth, no matter how good they may taste. There's dangerous stuff in there and I don't want it in my body!

Sorry, went off on a tangent there. Did I mention it's feeling a little like spring?

Tags: Golden Doodle

I have two wubbas: one for inside and one for outside.

A wubba is a neat toy with a round ball of a head and then a bunch of chewy arms that hang down from it. Wubba's fly well but they also have lots of things to grab onto with your teeth for a good game of tugging.

My dad and I play with the wubba a lot. Almost every day. Sometimes I'll just get it and drop it on his leg if he's just sitting there, doing nothing better than staring at the strange box with coloured lights for too long. He's usually pretty good about joining the game but not always. If my dad isn't around, I will let my mom play with my wubba too but she's not as rough as my dad and I like it when we bash each other around a bit.

I like to keep my dad confused when we play wubba. The standard play is for me to run to get it, then for him to try to take it away from me. We pull and tug and wrestle and battle for it. Finally, I let him take it because it's good exercise for him to throw it down the hall way. But when he does that, he thinks the game is over and I have to go to get the wubba and bring it back so that the game can start again.

Once I've picked it up, well then he decides that maybe, after all, he wants it back and so he chases me around the house. Sometimes it gets really silly because I just keep running around the coffee table in the living room and he keeps chasing me. Round and round and round in a very small circle. And he's not always very bright. I don't know how many times, just when he thinks he's about to catch me, I dart between his legs and escape. You'd think he'd have learned by now to keep his knees together but...

I try to get him to play for about 20 minutes or more every evening. He needs the exercise, to be honest, from the running and pulling and wrestling. Playing wubba with him is my way of helping him lose weight.

Once all the fluffy white stuff is gone and the big ball of light in the sky is warmer, I'll get him to play wubba with me out in the backyard again. Running around the house is fun but, when we're out in the big backyard, then I can get up a real head of steam and dad gets a lot more exercise!

Tags: Golden Doodle

Strange night last night. My mom and dad had a friend over for dinner and that friend brought a friend for me, a four-legger named Riley. Except, unlike my best friend Riley, who's male and big like me, this Riley is a little tiny lady and much older than I am.

I've met Riley once before — I recognised her scent as soon as she came through the gate into my backyard — almost a year ago just after we moved here from the old place. My mom said she's part of the Jack Russell race, a terrier with almost no fur. She's got a mostly white body with a black and brown head and almost no tail at all. You couldn't ask for two less similar four-leggers than me and her.

Mostly we just ignored each other. She sniffed her way around our back yard first, then came into the house. My mom, dad and their friend agreed that maybe Riley should not be invited to see the basement of the house, which I thought was a pretty smart precaution, but she tore around the main floor like we'd hidden beef nuggets all over the place. For such small legs, she can really motor.

Riley was, in fact, very nice but, because there's such a big difference in our ages, we didn't have much to talk about. I had had a busy day anyway so I was pretty pooped. I spent most of the time with my mom and dad and she spent most of the time sniffing around the house or climbing up on all the two-leggers.

Usually, I get jealous when another four-legger gets too close to my two-leggers but she was alright. I didn't mind so much.

My mom and dad seemed to very much enjoy their friend's visit. They sure did laugh a lot and talk and laugh some more. They stayed up deep into the long dark time, almost until the great ball of light came back into the sky this morning.

I was sure tired by the end of it. Even though it was fun to have another Riley come to visit, I was pretty happy when she took her two-legger home again early this morning. My mom, dad and I all slept until long after the ball of light came back into the sky and none of us had much energy for anything all day today.

Guests are fun but they sure can tire you out!

Tags: Golden Doodle