January 18, 2006

For the new year, I thought I’d take a page on my website to tell folks when I’ve been up to something. I mean, you’re here, so obviously you’re interested! Sometimes it’ll be something impressive, like a show win, but mostly just the everyday mischief I get into around the house. Although, I’m pretty much a good boy. It’s my Leonberger sister Jasmine who gets into the ‘other’ kind of mischief. Hey, that’s my story, and I’m sticking to it. 

Mom likes to keep me busy. She read somewhere that German Shepherd types need a job to do or they get bored and into clever mischief to entertain themselves. So, she taught me that whenever she goes into the garage or yard, my job is to guard her. That means, whatever I’m doing, immediately follow mom and keep an eye on her to make sure everything is okay.

Between you and me, it’s not exactly a hard job in this neighborhood. Mostly I guard the yard against stray dogs, deer, squirrels, and occasionally a large nasty dog that someone lets wander free. That beast actually had the nerve to threaten mom last year while she was working in the yard! I got rid of it for her. Scared her pretty badly until I did, though.

Sometimes I wish mom would keep track of what I’m doing before she just trots out to the garage or yard on some errand. Like today. She puts down this gorgeous bowl covered thickly in leftover home made spaghetti sauce. I’m digging into this great bowl, licking away to get my share before Jasmine snarfs it all up with her big tongue, and what does mom do but take herself out to the garage to bring in grocery bags. Naturally, I immediately follow her out, watch and wait until she’s back in the house. Jasmine didn’t finish off the really good sticky stuff that got baked on before I got back, so I chased her out of the bowl and went after it all.

What’s mom do? Right back out the garage! Okay. Again I immediately follow her, leaving that bowl behind. She heads back in and as she looks right at me, I flick my ears flat for just an instant to tell her I’m not please with her timing. Well, she figured out right away how come, and apologized. But, hey, apologizing doesn’t put more spaghetti sauce in the bowl, now does it? Back to the bowl I went, and finished off what remained. I’m well trained. I’m not so sure about mom.

Hm, okay, mom’s not around so here goes, confession time. Sometimes I’m not quite so good as she thinks. Shhhhh! Don’t you dare email her about this. There’s this pair of old sneakers she keeps in the garage; uses them when she does yard work or cleans up after us. Well, come winter there’s just not much to do to keep myself entertained out there, so I like to snag one of her sneakers and take it out to the driveway. Never chew it up, after all, it’s moms, not mine. But I like to leave it out there to tease her. Jasmine and I have a deal: neither of us looks guilty when she finds it and demands to know who did it. We’re not tellin’, and so far she hasn’t figured it out. Now, the other night I took it out, and she never noticed. Turns out it snowed like mad that night, a good 6-7 inches of wet snow, and covered it up right good. Next morning the guy she hired for the season came over and plowed out the driveway. Now I don’t know where that sneaker is. In our yard somewhere, or out across the street where he pushed all that beautiful snow. Wait til mom sees this one!  Heee, heeee!

February 2006

Sometimes, a guy has to be very clever, and use his sense of humor to handle a situation. Take tonight.  We were playing on the floor, mom and I. Mom would grab my back leg then my foreleg, whatever she could reach, and give it a tug toward her. She had me laughing but after a bit, I was getting a little frustrated because I could not, with good manners, do anything back to mom. I’d puppy bow, dance away, dance back, laughing, waving my tail, while letting mom continue to grab my legs. Suddenly I got an idea. I spun around and began to wave my tail, pummeling mom all about her head as I watched around my shoulder, laughing hard at what I was seeing. She was laughing and couldn’t see through all the fur to grab my legs anymore, and was spitting fur out of her mouth. I got her back! And didn’t break any rules of “good boy” to do it, either. Darn, I’m clever!

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March 2006

Hi. Prowler’s “mom” here. I know, this is Prowler’s own page for his memoirs, but this is one I have to tell about him myself. Hope you don’t mind. I promise I’ll turn the page back over to Prowler again after this story.

Honestly, this dog has more ways of making me laugh. Jay and I were watching TV tonight and it seemed to me I smelled something unpleasant. Got down on the floor and began sniffing the dogs, fearing the obvious: one of them had stepped in something nasty. First I checked Prowler’s ears, just in case it was an infection. Fine. Then his teeth. Fine. Gonna have to check the paws. Asked Prowler to roll on his side, and sniffed each front paw. Hm, paws smelled clean. Would have expected some scent there, but no. Apparently he figured out the routine because he lifted a rear paw toward my face and awaited my reaction. Nope, fine there, too; same with the other rear paw he offered. Then he spread his rear legs. “Ah, no; I don’t think so Prowler, thanks anyway.”

Prowler curled around and sniffed that area himself. One leg still in the air he looked back at me, expression plainly saying “nope, nothing here either.”

I rolled over onto the floor laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes! With this boy’s intelligence and willingness to serve, he picks up so fast on what I’m trying to do, and pitches in to help. But this one was just too much.

Janet

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April 11, 2006

Well, I got thoroughly embarrassed today. Mom came back into the house from doing something in the yard, and Jasmine scooted between mom’s knees for a butt scratch. That made me thoroughly jealous, Jasmine getting to mom before I did. After all, I’m the alpha dog in this pack, I want first greeting. I did my best to tell Jasmine to get out of there and let me in first -  barking, hopping around, whining. Didn’t work, she wasn’t going to budge. See, Jasmine’s a Leonberger. When there’s a good butt scratch going on she just plants those big paws, and she’s not going anywhere.

By then I was really annoyed with her, so I did what always works best to get Jasmine out of my way:  I ducked down underneath her belly to flip her out of my way with my big shoulders. Mom says I’ve got a lot of muscle. All I know is, I can flip Jasmine whenever I want even though she’s a couple pounds heavier than me. She could do to lose a couple of pounds between you and me. Not this time. I forgot - mom was standing right on top of Jasmine’s shoulders.

Not only was I frustrated – I had to put up with both of them laughing at me. Sheesh.

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May 2006

Here it is - my first award brag, here on my memoirs page. Well, I mean, there were other awards before this, but I didn’t have my page back then. And from mom’s excitement when it happened, this must be a big one.

I just got some fancy new letters for mom to put in front of my name! Now I’m NS, besides all the rest.  That means I was awarded a National Select title from the TSSR registry for my achievements in 2005. I got a big trophy and a huge rosette, and got my picture taken with the delightful Ms Christy Yonavick, who always shows me for mom. I like Ms Christy a lot. She says the sweetest things to me. Don’t get me wrong, I loved having mom with me in the rings when I was a youngster…but let’s be honest. Now that I’m grown up, Ms Christy is better at helping me look good in there. And between you and me, she runs more smoothly than mom does. But let’s not tell mom, okay?

Mom is all excited about the letters, and the trophy and the rosette. She won’t even let me chew on them. She says they’re not chew toys, and they’re not food. OK. Someone fill me in. If they’re not for playing with, and you can’t eat them, what’s all the excitement??

Hmm? Oh. Well, okay!

Mom just passed by and I asked her. She said if I’m really lucky, maybe those extra letters in front of my name will help me get good girl dog date. Ohhh, la-dies…...

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