JODIE:Hello all! Jodie here finally getting a chance to update our blog. Dad moans and groans about helping us with our blog, but it doesn’t hold water with me. He has PLENTY of time to do his crossword puzzles and computer games. He spends HOURS checking weather, Facebook, emails, and other peoples’ blogs, yet he complains that he’s TIRED. Bah!!!
COCO: I’m with you, Jodie. I got to him last month only because I looked so bad and he had to humor me.
SANDY: In fact, Jodie and I never got to comment about your……..er…..condition. We couldn’t even make fun of you wearing that blue lamp shade.
COCO: You’re pushing your luck, dopey.
JODIE: No fighting between us, we have a lot to talk about so lets not squabble. First, much of the summer at home has been spent in the pool and it has been grand!!! You know we all love the water and will get in the pool every chance we get. Unfortunately, Coco has had her share of woes, actually, more than her share and when she can’t go in the pool, we can’t either. So it hurts me to see Coco in such distress, but more so because we can’t go in the pool either. In fact, yesterday and today, Dad spent his time covering the pool for the winter. September 21st and the pool is covered for the winter, how fair is that.
SANDY: I think Dad’s reason is that since Coco can’t use the pool we shouldn’t as it would only torment her. Besides, he and Mom are gearing up for another trip south of the border.
JODIE: I know, I know. So, Coco, how are you doing?
COCO: This has been a miserable summer for me. I LOVE the water and I am the MOST water loving dog in the family. I run, I swim, I dive, I fetch off the bottom and I’m the ONLY one who can do that. Come to think of it, that may be part of my problem. Since my head is sometimes four feet underwater, I constantly get water in my ears. Then when I come up, I shake my head VERY vigorously to get the water out. I think that’s how I originally got that fat ear flap. Mom says a blood vessel burst and filled my ear with fluid. You guys know I was at the Vets for an operation, but I don’t remember much. They took me in and gave me a shot. Later I woke up a little dizzy with my ear shaved and sewn together. What’s with that? Then I come home and Dad put that damn lamp shade on my head. Try as I might, I couldn’t scratch that itch.
SANDY: That’s why you wear the lamp shade. If you can’t scratch, you can’t make it worse.
COCO: Yeah, yeah, yeah. You should try wearing that darn thing. I try to squeeze through as place and I get caught. I try to sniff something as I run across the yard and I about hang myself. AND…..NO SWIMMING!!!!!
JODIE: So what happened after that. We were in the pool for a while.
COCO: Well it goes back to the same problem. Dive in the water, shake my head, break some blood vessels and it’s back to the Vet. This time he wrapped my ear so it looked like I had a sausage sticking out of my head.
SANDY: To be honest, Coco, you were kind of funny to look at. We, or at least I couldn’t help but snicker and if it bothered you, then I’m sorry. It was still funny, though.
COCO: The sausage wrap wasn’t the end, though. When Mom unwrapped the bandage, the ear was puffing up again. So it was BACK to the Vets…..AGAIN! I got shots…AGAIN. I went to sleep….AGAIN. And this time, when I woke up, my head was wrapped in bandages. Not just my ear, but my WHOLE HEAD!!! Then I come home and Dad gets me again with the lamp shade.
SANDY: Golly, you look like you had a fight with a pit bull and came out on the losing end.
JODIE: OK, OK, enough. Coco has had a tough time of it and I certainly don’t envy her, except that I see Dad slip her an extra cookie from time to time, but we have more news. We have a guest for a couple of weeks. We have another chocolate lab to keep Coco company. Molly, once known as Freckles when she was here a few years ago with her puppies, is visiting and has resumed her position in the pack, sort of. When she was here in 2009, she was #3, but since then, Sandy has become #3 and Sandy wants to make sure that Molly knows that Molly is #4.
MOLLY: May I add a woof or two?
JODIE: Sure, go right ahead.
MOLLY: Fine. I thank you for the hospitality and Sandy has made it plain to me that she is really a permanent pack member and I am only a guest. I enjoy playing with all of you anyway, but find that you are not as……….I’m searching for the right phrase………ACTIVE as I am. You three are more like couch potatoes. I’m used to getting a LOT more exercise and being a LOT more active than you three. Oh, I know that Coco has her problems and I feel bad for her, but you, Jodie, and you, Sandy, should be running more, walking more, chasing more. Oh, I know that I haven’t caught a squirrel either, but I sure get a LOT closer than you two, since Coco isn’t into chasing right now.
JODIE: Well, Molly, you are certainly entitled to your opinion, but I’m in my mid 60s in people years and I enjoy a more laid-back life style. Oh, I make a show of chasing birds and squirrels, but I have no idea what I’d do if I caught one. I like to swim. I LOVE beaches, especially when there are a lot of waves and I can play there for HOURS. The same seems to be true of Sandy and especially Coco when she’s feeling better. I will admit that Sandy has a lot more energy than I do or Coco does, but she is also a LOT younger. We live a comfortable life and hope to continue. There is little competition between us even when we play fetch. When Mom or Dad throws the first ball, Coco and I wait, because Sandy is so fast that she ALWAYS gets the first ball. When the second ball is thrown we still wait, because big mouth Sandy gets the second ball, too. I take off with the third ball and Coco waits because Coco can’t run as fast as I can. When that fourth ball goes out, Coco gives it all she has to get to it. Unlike me and Sandy, Coco returns the ball to be thrown over and over until Mom or Dad calls it quits. Coco never gives up.
SANDY: Nope, Coco never gives up, but if she runs too much, she’s sore at night. She had a problem with her ears at one end and her hips at the other end, but I’ll tell you what, if someone should drop a cookie or any morsel of food around us, Coco WILL get to it first, GUARANTEED. She may wait her turn with the ball, but it’s always her turn when food is concerned.
COCO: Ha, ha, you guys are funny. I do my best to get to anything edible before anyone else. What can I say, it’s what I do!
JODIE: And I guess that says it all for the rest of us. We live a mellow life with people we cherish and who cherish us. It really doesn’t get any better than that. So long for now. I probably won’t write again until we have something to say.
Woofs to all!!!
