And Now a Message from Riley

Riley, yeah that’s me, or at least what some humans call me. I’d tell you my real name but it doesn’t translate to people-speak. I am 31 years old (that is 4½ people years) and right now I am living with my best friend, Mike, although he sometimes calls himself Rex. Weird, huh? He’s the guy who bailed me out of that doggie jail I was in a couple years ago. I won’t give details as to why I was in jail, but I am forever grateful to him. 

This guy is so easy to predict, like in the mornings I know he is ready to let me take him for a walk. He takes off his slippers and puts on his socks and boots and then gets two of those funny little plastic bags from the cabinet. He does this weird thing though with those bags on his exercise walk: After I relieve myself he picks it up with one of them. I want to yell at him, “Hey dude, I just picked that spot for a very good reason.”

We do a lot of things together, but not nearly enough for me. I really hate it when he leaves me alone for a long time. (Hey, what is time anyway?) And then comes home smelling like he was wherever. Man he has all the fun. But I can’t help it, this big ol’ tail of mine starts a-waggin’ and he can see I am so glad he is home. I guess it is just a dog’s nature.

So now we are on this road trip. He did the coolest thing for me. In our doghouse on wheels he made a special big dog seat so I can ride up front. There is nothing I like better than putting my nose out the window as we roll. All of those smells and I don’t even have to sniff. But after a while I get bored so I nap a lot. He has been finding really cool woodsy places for us to stay. Wow, so many new things to check out and anoint. I am in doggie heaven.

And there are other animals I have never seen before. We saw some deer, a raccoon, and some strange kind of big bird. He said something about bears but I don’t know what they are. There are other humans here too and some of them have these BIG doghouses on wheels. But it seems like the bigger the dog house on wheels, the smaller the dog in them, and noisy ones at that. I wish I knew why those little guys have to yap all the time.

Sometimes he yells at me for nothing; like the other day we were in this kind of park place and there were a bunch of big stones sticking out of the ground. So I did what I always do to tell all the other dogs I was here, and he yells at me for that. I mean, hey dude, I am a dog, ya know!

Food — now that is my favorite subject. Sometimes I get what he eats. I have to say, the man can cook! MMmmm. But that crud he gives me out of the bag, yuck! I usually try to out-wait him and leave it in the bowl hoping I can get some of that people food. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. I have to work on his training there a bit.

This morning he was extra friendly with me and even gave me some extra treats. Then went to a store and came out with some doggie ice cream. What, was it my birthday? Not exactly, but it is the same day I moved in with him two years ago. Time does fly.

                              

OK, storytelling is making me tired. I see a nice sunbeam coming in the bedroom window so I think I’m gonna curl up in the beam and take a nap.

Squirrel!!!

Where???

Hey, who said squirrel????