TREATS!

Unbelievable! The Boss really did say come down for a treat.

I guess the the Boss must be missing the Girl and the Treat Lady too. It seems that he has mostly been eating peanut butter toast for the last week. (He actually is looking a little skinnier too.)

The Boss finished off two jars of peanut butter and gave them to us tonight as a treat. Here you can see the proof for yourself. Cassidy took hers in her crate. Like I'm going to try to take the little jar away from her when I have the big crunchy jar.



Then we got to go outside and chase frogs and go swimming and play tag and go for another walk and get dried off and get brushed and play tag.... it was a great night!

Time to go take a nap.

Back to Reality

I cannot believe that the Boss let SE at the keyboard. That is over now!

I am weak from lack of treats so I won't be writing much, but I have to tell you what's going on!

First off, the Girl has been gone forever and now the Treat Lady has disappeared. The Boss and the Treat Lady left the house and only the Boss came back. I can count on one paw how many treats we have had in the last week. Two of them were bananas and one was a carrot I snatched up that the Boss dropped. Cassidy and I are wasting away!

See how skinny I am now!

Even Cassidy looks skinny now. (She's sucking in her belly..)

I guess aside from the treats we still miss the Treat Lady and the Girl. The Boss talks about them but it's just not the same. I keep listening really hard to him, cocking my head back and forth to understand better, but they just don't show up.

Here you can see what Cassidy has been doing for the last week. I'll bet she's dumb enough to think that if she stares at the door long enough the Treat Lady will come back.

At least we have been getting lots of walks. We have even gone to new areas where we don't recognize the peemail. That's always fun.

There is also a big doe that has been sleeping in our yard at night with her two fawns. It is our job to keep them out of the vegetable garden. Every night we go out and snort at them and run around the yard. The Boss always yells at me for running but I just ignore him now. I can tell he doesn't really mean it. My legs are way better!

Actually, when the Boss isn't looking I get Cassidy to play tag with me. She's so dumb. She thinks that just because she's fast I can't catch her. Cassidy goes zig-zagging through all the trees like a rocket and I just run over to the tree she always turns back on. You should see the look on her face when I catch her coming around the corner at full speed. She'll never learn!

Hey the Boss is calling us downstairs! I have to go. I could swear he said treat but I must just be hearing things. What the heck! I'll be back later.

Silly Elephant - Still in Alaska

Boy oh boy! Talk about a crazy experience. So we take this hike along a glacier in Alaska the other day. We start out early, right after breakfast and are the only ones walking along a trail that takes us through the brush along the side of a very large glacier.

As you can see from the picture below it is a very pretty walk along a very scenic path.
I, of course, am stowed away in the Boss' pack again. He doesn't seem to mind carrying me around even though I am an elephant.

I also think it is because he likes to take pictures of me in very scary poses. Here I am in front of some bear scat the day before on our way up to a copper mine.

It is interesting that he took this picture yesterday because today we came across no less than 12 piles of scat on our walk along the glacier. After seeing a very, very fresh (steaming) deposit I heard the Boss and the Treat Lady say that they were going to head back to camp if they came across another on this hike. I don't know why we didn't turn back when we saw the first dry one.

Before that happened they heard a noise behind them. Luckily it turned out to be two gentlemen hiking up the trail. One was a native of Alaska and the other his brother-in-law. The best part was that they had a very large gun and a can of bear spray. The Treat Lady and the Boss decided that it would be ok to hike along with the two nice gentlemen as they were better prepared for the possibility of meeting a bear. I guess they all really wanted to see this glacier. I wanted to go back!

After a while we were all startled by a snort and then some whining. Here is what we saw.


The Boss just kept taking pictures as the bear could not get down the ridge in front of him. He seemed to be upset and alternated between snorting (very scary) and whining (he sounded like a baby). After a while he just disappeared around the rock. Before he left though the Boss got this picture of that mean bear.

There was no shooting today or bear spraying. I guess we got really lucky. I heard the Boss say he was going to throw me at the bear to distract him if he looked like he was going to charge. I don't think it would have helped much. I didn't like that joke at all.

Our friends from Alaska told us how one fall on a fishing trip they had a bear tear apart their camp. He then came back and they had to shoot him. It seemed only fitting because he had eaten all their food so they had to eat him. They do things a little different here in Alaska.

I was happy that the Boss didn't try to take my picture in front of anything scary that day. It was bad enough just hearing that bear from inside his pack.

Today we got to see much friendlier faces such as this Sea Otter. I hope we go home soon!!

Silly Elephant in Alaska

Silly Elephant:

So here's what happened the other day. The Boss and the Treat Lady were moving around the house packing up their bags. They always do this when one or both of them disappears for a while. This time it looked like both of them were going. The dogs were acting really strange. Rooney was following them around every where they went. Cassidy actually went and laid down in the Treat Lady's bag. The Treat Lady worked around her for a bit but then had to make Cassidy move aside. When Cassidy got up, she dropped me out of her mouth and I was packed in with the rest of the stuff in the Treat Lady's suitcase. That is how I ended up in Alaska.

It was the longest plane ride ever! It was my first but it was still my longest (6 ½ hours). It is really pretty nice here in Alaska with it being warm (75 degrees) and sunny (22 hours of light). The only bad thing is the bugs. They have a really bad name they call the mosquitoes here. Sometimes we have to wear nets over our heads because even the bug spray doesn't keep them off.

The hiking was really nice. I didn't have to walk anywhere. I snuck into the Boss' pack and he carried me around. The trails are not very well marked if at all sometimes. As you can see here it looks like a jungle some of the time.

We stayed in sight of rivers and creeks (I learned that from Bear Grylls) and sang loud when we came across bear scat (that's poop).

Here I am enjoying the view.

Here I am about to jump in a mountain ridge lake.

Luckily we didn't see any of the bears on the first day.

Here though is some of what we saw on the second day. The Treat Lady screeched but the Boss just kept taking pictures.

I stayed in the Boss' pack that day. I hear they eat elephants for lunch!

Summer is Here! - well again almost (CP)

So the Entire Family was busy playing lately so I have to write the blog. Yes, this is Pooh writing today. The Entire Family calls me New Pooh but I like to call myself CP (Cool Pooh)! Old Pooh is resting and Big Pooh is in the hospital emergency room.

Rooney and The Boy doing some synchronized jumping

It started out as a normal, almost summer day with the Entire Family getting some chores done around the house before they started to play in the pool.

The Raccoon Princess

Here is Cassidy, the Princess, pretending she is a raccoon washing her pine cones in the pool before chewing them up. I hope she doesn't eat the whole thing today. Sometimes she even wakes me up in the middle of the night when she horks them back up.

Here is what the wild dogs do when they get tired of swimming. The Girl blew up the raft for them so they could float around the pool. I would never get on that thing with them. I would get wet and when I get wet I can't hold up my head.

All was going well until Cassidy decided she wanted to give me horsey rides around the pool.

Next thing you know they are playing save New Pooh (I mean CP)! I did not want to get wet, but nobody was listening to me.

Rooney copying the classic "Butch Saving Ken" masterpiece

So now I am soaked and Rooney is confused. I have trouble breathing when my head is full of water.

Rooney the big dope thinks that chewing on my arm will help me get the water out.

Rooney finally figures out the correct way to do CPR.
(yep, Cool Pooh Resuscitation)

As you can see here I have a lot of trouble when I'm this wet.

My neck is as weak as the Treat Lady's on a roller coaster.
(I heard that one from The Boy.)

I keep smiling though because that's all I know how to do. Finally The Girl picks me up, dusts me off and sets me up to dry out a bit. By this time the wild dogs are off to eat dinner. They'll forget about me for a while. Hopefully they can find Silly Elephant or even Old Pooh and let me be. CP signing out.

Where's The Boss with my Evian?
(I hope he doesn't read this!)

Summer is almost here

Is it real or is it Memorex?

Well the pool is open and it is almost warm enough for The Girl to go swimming with me. I like the pool at about 65.
The Girl likes the pool at about 85.
Right now it is a bit warm for me at 68. Boo hoo Girl.

Of course soon she will talk the Boss into turning on the heater and we can all go in together.


Kacie ended up having to go home this weekend. That ended Cousin Camp. Too bad. Cassidy and Kacie were starting to get along like sisters. We were also getting used to Kacie's cow imitation. Every time she would lay down she we let out a little moo! It was quite amusing. I just wish I could run with her. I would show her who is number one!

Here is another picture of the Treat Lady's Tree Peonies

By the way, if you were wondering whether I snuck in a picture from last year at the top of this post, here is a closeup of my knee. I can now do fun things if I just move straight ahead. It will be a couple more weeks before I can really run, but the swimming is great. Really helps me work up an appetite.

Cousin Camp

Well I must be getting better because they let me have friends sleep over. Well, maybe Kacie is not really a friend because she is family. She's my cousin from another city. As you can see from this first picture Kacie still has to wear a leash around our yard. She isn't quite as relaxed yet with all the people that walk by.

It is fun to have Kacie over but she sure is noisy. The Boss can get her to be quiet but when the Treat Lady says it's time to go in the woods you would think someone stepped on a cat. Kacie loves the woods because she doesn't have to wear a leash there. She gets to run free like we do because she always stays close to the rest of us.

At the end of a walk in the woods we are all on our best behavior. We make the Treat Lady look like the Dog Whisperer as she trots us home. All that being good is tiring though. I don't really mind sharing my bed with Kacie after a good run in the woods. I think the only one who is bothered by it is silly Cassidy. She is one rung lower in the pecking order with Kacie here. Boo hoo Cassidy. It's tough to be the runt. I still run things though unless the Treat Lady or the Boss or the Girl or the Boy are here.

The weather is getting better and the Girl is home again. She is always spoiling Cassidy by letting her on the sofa. Kacie learned quick that Cassidy is the only one allowed on the sofa. Boo hoo Kacie. (I'd make a laughing, smiley face here if I knew how to do that)

The Girl helped the Boss open the pool so now I can go swimming. I miss the Therapy Girl but nothing beats chewing on an old tennis ball soaking in the pool.

Kacie is afraid of the pool so far.

Ok, here is a gratuitous picture of the Treat Lady's tree peonies. We're not supposed to pee on these if you know what I mean. (Another laughing, smiley face here)

We are all helping the folks move mulch. All three of us like to see the weeds close up as the Treat Lady pulls them out. Sometimes we help move the mulch too by picking up big pieces and running around with them. Here we are after the Boss told us we could take a break from being such a big help.

Kacie doesn't have to wear a leash all the time now. She is getting much better.

Well, time to go see what we have for treats and go to bed.

Dreaming Again!

Some times when I am cooped up all day I dream about fun things I've done . . . . . . .

Made it through a long week

The weeks are really long when either the Boss or the Treat Lady are gone. This week the Boss was gone and we were cooped up during the days. The Treat Lady always takes us for good walks though.

At the beginning of the week I went in for my second therapy session on my right leg. I remember where to go and even found my way through the vet's office to the tank in the basement. I led the way with the Therapy girl and the Boss trailing. This time I went for twice as long as my first session and got to use the jacuzzi jets at the end. Those are really cool. I just sit down in the warm water and let them loosen up all that tension from having to deal with Cassidy.

You can kind of see the bubbles in this picture.
I didn't make em!

The Therapy girl said that most of the other dogs that had leg surgery like mine and at the same time are doing ok. Some of them had two surgeries like me too. They aren't doing as good. They still don't use their leg the way they are supposed to. I can. I do it right. She told me again that I'm number one! Very cool.

She also told me that I am handsome and that I look skinny. Wow, a perfect visit. I am looking forward to Tuesday!

Today I spent most of the day outside chewing on pine cones and sticks. I chased Cassidy a little until the Treat Lady yelled at me. Then I had to lie down for a while. I got bored with that so I went over and sat on Cassidy's head. I like messing with her. She just makes groaning noises and moves over.

After I tried to make Cassidy chase me some more the Boss made me go inside. Cassidy got to stay out there. Lucky dog. Now I'm really tired from all the fresh air. I better take another nap.

13 Days is bad luck!

13 days since my last surgery. Is that bad luck? You decide, I know I have my opinion!

I only have time for a short note tonight but let me start by showing you Cassidy up to her old tricks!

Here she is playing with Mia again in the park. Mia is now 5 months old and Cassidy acts like a mom to her. Mia just plays it up by licking her face and jumping all around Cassidy like she's all that. Lucky dog!

Now here is a picture of me playing with Mia. Just as you can see, I never did get out to play with her. So much for being fair.





I had to go to the vet today for my latest checkup. I really don't mind it anymore. They are very nice to me and I always get some good treats there. I am also still the biggest loser. I only weigh 68 pounds now. That is 10 pounds less than my fighting weight. The best thing about being so skinny is that the Treat Lady feels sorry for me every time I get weighed which gets me more treats that day. I think it is also because I look so skinny without any fur on my hips. I keep telling Cassidy that if she would shave her thighs she would get more treats too. She growls at me when I say that.

There is one thing I don't like at the vet. This is when the nice, smiley girl pulls out the thermometer. I know exactly what it is for and I go hide behind the Boss when I see it. It is not the kind of thermometer that they let me hold under my tongue.

The vet said I was doing great. My knee is healing well even though I have a bit of swelling. The bad thing is that both the vet and my rehab doctor say I am too active. If I don't stop walking around so much I might end up more bowlegged than I already am. They told the Boss to keep me locked up and on a leash forever! At least that's what I heard.

So here I am back at home trapped in the family room. At least they make Cassidy stay with me. We usually take turns pretending we're in jail. The doors are open on the crate and we just walk in, lie down and look as sad as possible. It was my turn tonight.
Tomorrow I get to go to my first therapy session Part Deux. I hope I can bring my camera.

Well I'm off to get a late night treat and then take a nap.

9 Days PS Part Deux

Well the Treat Lady says to me that I just have to write, but that is easier said than done. When the Boss leaves town he takes his computer with him. I can barely type. How the heck am I supposed to use a pencil. Every time I pick one up I end up eating it by mistake.

There are some good things about when the Boss is gone. Last night, Cassidy and I got to sleep on the the big, high, soft bed. The Treat Lady fell for the staring trick again. Both of us stood next to the bed and just stared at it. We did it for two nights in a row. Then when the Treat lady started to soften, we put our paws up on the bed. We had her at the paws and she had to help us up. As a reward we let her sleep later in the morning before stepping on her to get her to take us out.

I am able to walk much better now. I have the wobbly knee thing going on with my right leg now just like before. I'm sure it will stop doing that in a couple more weeks. I just have to be careful because it flops out and I tend to slip if where I'm walking is even a little smooth.

I can also go up and down the stairs again. Going down is easy. Going up I walk like the Boss after his Sunday soccer games. I can do it and that allows me to sleep upstairs again. No more camping in the family room.

I have a little bit of swelling in my knee too. I think I'm going to the vet tomorrow to have them look at it. I hope I get to go in the swimming tub again. Maybe I'll make another video.

Lastly, I had some good dreams while I was on my pain treats the last week. I am having trouble remembering everything so I will work on it and tell you about it soon. Maybe this weekend.

Well better see if I can get outside before going up to bed. With the Boss here the staring trick doesn't work. It will be the floor for us again. At least he can't stop the treats!

Day Two PS Part Deux

Before I tell you how Rooney is today I have to answer a question that has been asked multiple times about the picture of Cassidy from yesterday. "Was Old Pooh posed for the picture with Cassidy by the window?" The answer is no. While Cassidy was sitting on the stairs or anywhere else in the house on Tuesday waiting for her brother to come back, she had one of his Poohs with her. Above you can see her with New Pooh on the back stairs. She put Old Pooh down as she was looking out the window and he happened to land as you see him. Cassidy doesn't get to hold any Poohs for long when Rooney is home. It was interesting to see her carry one around the entire time that Rooney was gone.

Rooney today is feeling a little better. He seems to be coming back a bit slower from this surgery than his first. He barely touches his paw to the ground and has more trouble walking. His appetite is good and he is drinking lots of water. He doesn't seem to be in much pain. Just very tentative with his leg so far.

Cassidy of course was really happy to see Rooney come home yesterday. She would not leave his side. Here you can see her in the family room with her brother. She didn't mind at all being locked up with him for the day.


The Girl came home today and Rooney was really excited to see her. He then proceeded to get a really long neck and head rub from the Girl. No wonder he likes her so much.

Rooney had his Physical Therapy sessions at home today working on his range of motion. His knee moves smoothly and he has a pretty good range of motion when forced. He just doesn't seem to want to do it himself yet. We'll see how he does over the next couple of days.

The Girl wouldn't let me post any pictures of his knee or any video of him limping around the yard. She says it is too sad to watch. As he gets better I'm sure we'll see more of him.

Now he is resting nicely in his locked down family room. I'll bet he's hoping the Treat Lady sleeps in there with him again tonight.

Surgery Day Deux

On the way to the Vet this morning. Very hungry and not happy!

Well we got a call from the Vet about 30 minutes ago and Rooney's surgery went fine. He is again resting on his cot with his heater and doing well. His second knee had a little less acute damage and a bit more long term damage than his left. The meniscus was torn again and there was a bit of scar tissue and arthritis. Pretty impressive for guy who is only about three years old. His knee tightened up nicely with the "tightrope" procedure according to Dr. Jeff. We'll see how he feels when he comes home tomorrow.

The one this surgery seems to be taking the biggest toll on right now is his sister Cassidy. Here she is waiting on the steps for him to come home.

I was able to work at home today and she had been on this step (she can see the back door and side door from here) for more than 4 hours before I made her come into my office. After a while in my office she disappeared again. I tracked her down and this is where I found her.

I'm sure when the Treat Lady gets home Cassidy will be all fine again. She'll get to go for a long walk in the woods and get some banana. Lucky dog.