Thanksgiving Memories

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving last week. I went up with Alice to our northern county property at the old U.S. Army Fort Baker. We own it! ... along with every other citizen of the US. Of course the local coyotes, deers, foxes, seagulls and seals say, "Hey! We were here first!!" But they let us share it for which Alice and I are very thankful.

A real highlight was meeting Captain. He is a distant relative of mine who had an amazing adventure in which he lost an eye. But, he's not talking about it to the people. I heard the whole story and I am not telling either. It's between us tibbies.

Captain and his people took a long walk up into the hills. He's young and can do those things. I prefered to stay in warm spots out of the wind.


Alice met Moss, a very young Border Collie who might become the local hotel dog. He'd have an appointment book packed with people wanting to take him out for walks if Nancy the Concierge of Cavallo Point Lodge at Fort Baker and his person Euan think he's up to the job. Paws crossed for Moss. If he gets the job, I'll bet he'll have many drawings made of him as Captain does.

Goodbye Fluffy & Tuffy

Today, Alice and I learned the last of our block's Big Dogs is gone. Fluffy and Tuffy are now forever together again waiting for their Pam to join them for slow walks and long soaks under the warm Sun. I loved that they were just the same colors as me. Fluffy white rears. Golden backs and heads.

We were the gentle and quiet dogs of our block. Deliberate and calm thinkers.

Here is a photo of me with one of them in November 2009. It's been sitting on Alice's telephone camera for a long time. It's now time to download it and post it forever in the Internet cloud.

Rest in Peace, Fluffy and Tuffy.

News from the Skylakis in Athens

Alice met many very important dogs in Greece a few months ago. The people there call them "skylos" (dog) or "skylaki" (doggie).

This week has been unnerving for the skylakis of Syntagma Square in Athens. A normal day there involves getting water and food all day long from nice people, lots of stretching, naps and more naps, and sloooow walks to Sun spots for basking. No one can get a nap there now! Yesterday, some people shot off tear gas after other people starting ripping up the paving stones to throw about. Enough already!!

"That was MY favorite stone for Sun basking, fella!," says this Hellenic relative photographed by an AFP person while dodging angry people waving fabric on sticks at other people. It's time for everyone to calm down, get something decent to eat - maybe some of that fabulous Greek cheese pie?! - and then have a long snooze. Things will look much better then in the morning.

But will the people take the advice of the skylakis?


Here is that same skylos on a normal day. He is the Vice-Mayor of the Hotel Grande Bretagne. The Mayor is a bigger dog who hangs out closer to the doorman. In past lives they've lived through invasions from Persians, Spartans, Romans, Turks, Venecians, Nazis.... This, too, shall pass, and we will still be here with the flower sellers across the corner and the skylakis Otto and Amelia on the other side of the Square.

Alice's New Dog

Alice got a new dog today. Not to worry, it's just a hairclip in the shape of a Scottie or maybe a Westie? I hope she doesn't get me any hairclips... I like the wind in my fur!!
We've been on a lot of short local trips since last Fall. Several to the new military cemetary near Sacramento. I got an exiciting 2-night overnight with Kip and Kyle last month while Alice went to curl in Seattle. They put on their cheetah costumes to make me feel comfortable. Lots of family get-togethers. Lots and lots of fun walks and plenty of lap sitting in the cars. Isn't life great?
What will this year bring? I'm ready for it.

SF Giants Win the World Series!

I watched the end of the World Series tonight with my Carolyn as Alice listened on her radio in a car. I watched the first game with Alice and Carolyn at home while Diego and Pablo got seats at the ball park. Pablo dyed his beard black to be like Giants closer pitcher Brian Wilson and Diego looked a bit like Lincecum. They had a great time.
I wonder if they smelled any of the many Polish dog hotdogs and garlic fries Farley's Alphonse gave as offerings on the mound before each SF Giants season opener? I suspect Alphonse has fainted with the news of the Giants winning the World Series tonight.
Pika's Catherine and Agustin watched Game 4 last night from Chicago. I wonder if Catherine as a Texan was rooting for the Rangers? Agustin said he was rooting for the Giants.
I thought a lot about Roger during the games. I know he NEVER got over the Giants and the Dodgers moving to California from New York... or rather I should say for the latter moving from the Great City of Brooklyn to - horrors! - Los Angeles.
As a kid in the 1940s and a teen in the 1950s, the Dodgers were everything to him. He would save money to take the train to Ebbets Field by himself. He sometimes saw games there with his Dad. He saved and saved and saved as a little kid to buy a REAL Dodgers shirt to play stickball with his friends. A baseball his Dad caught during a game sits on Agustin's dresser now in Mexico City.
I will dream tonight of Roger playing baseball with his brothers George, Bobby and Richard. They will all be wearing Brooklyn Dodger's shirts except Bobby who always rooted for the Yankees. They will all be under age 13. The Sun will be shining and the grass will be very green. They will have a real MLB baseball and gloves to play with and one wooden bat. The Brooklyn Dodgers will win the World Series!

Scooby's Mystery Machine

Alice had a look at the Halloween decorations for sale at the local CVS. A plastic pumpkin in the exact shape of Scooby-Do caught her eye. She loaded into the car instead a real pumpkin from the grocery store.

But Scooby followed her...

Here is his special van just a couple of blocks from our house yesterday. Alice asked me if this is a sign she should have bought that Scooby pumpkin head. No, I said, we have enough stuff already in the house. I would prefer more room for running around having her chase me as I bite the plush squirrel toy to make it chatter.

But.... Alice is now humming the Scooby-Do song much too often for my taste....

Me & Reva

Here I am earlier today with Reva. She is an artist who is painting my portrait. There it is between us almost ready to take home. I guess this means I shall be truly immortal now that I have a portrait.
Reva also painted the two Scotsmen Alice has in our hallway. One of them looks just like a human relative and the other has deep thoughts about outdoor winter Scottish sports, which yes, do, of course, including the very best sport of all: dog walking!!

Molly

I have a new neighbor. Her name is Molly. She is a labradoodle. Here I am meeting her for the first time. She has grown as tall as me in just a few weeks. The first few weeks in her new house she was a bit scared. When her people would go out she would cry. I tried to send her calm-down-thoughts. It usually worked. Now she is learning how to be calm like me. Not jumping up on people is a very tough lesson for her. She is just too little to understand that I think. Everyday I walk by her house and wonder how she is doing. It's very nice to have another dog on my block.

Adventures of 7-4-Foxtrot

Alice's earliest memories of flying are from trips in 7-4-Foxtrot, a.k.a. a white and orange Mooney. Way back in the late 1960's and early 1970's, she would wait on a wing while her Dad pre-flighted. Inside, it always smelled of cigarettes and Wrigley's Spearmint gum. Her sister, Catherine, was always in back with her while their Dad sat up front as pilot-in-command with Mom as a fully capable radio-operator and lander. Mom never was interested in learning how to take-off an airplane....

A trip in Summer 1970 to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone is now dimming in Alice's mind. She can't remember which places were visited first. In her mind, she has very strong memories of seeing the Grand Tetons across a river. They seemed rather small to her after having first flown over the Sierra Nevadas many times and walking in Yosemite in Winter and Summer.

It was HOT, HOT, HOT in the Tetons. Driving by (or through?) an archway of shed elk anters. Hot and dry walking to their rooms in a long line of cottages right next to the Jackson Lake Lodge. Each cottage with a funny wood screen sheltering a little porch. A horseride up into the Teton's foothills for an evening cowboy BBQ. Alice remembers the black and white pinto coat of the horse she rode. For years and years she remembered his name.... but can't think of it now.

Yellowstone - the view from the plane of the green, blue, yellow, orange and red hot springs is still there in the mind. Waiting in a crowd for Old Faithful to blow. The sound of it whooshing - Alice thinks she could play the tone of it on the piano. That sound is still there. (If you click on the photo of the sign you will see Catherine holding Francis! FWIW: Francis is NOT one of the troll orphans in the movie Toy Story 3 but one of her distant cousins is.)

Looking into the Yellowstone river canyon from a road - OK, thought Alice - but all things considered - one *should* be nice - Yosemite's falls are prettier. Alice would like to go back there and spend more time preferably in Winter in a self-driven one-horse open sleigh with blankets. (Pabu says, I would like to see and sniff a buffalo from a very safe distance! And pay my respects to that Faithful thing as one faithful creature to another.)

Pika's people are in Jackson Hole as I write this. With a new ukulele of all things! I think she would be happy to have a ride in a Mooney over Jackson Lake and to swoop over Yellowstone. And, listen to a new uke tune about her own adventures in the Tetons. But really, I know she would prefer to have a photo op in the same spot her Catherine stood in front of the Tetons when she was the same age Pika is now. I'm sure she could sniff out that exact spot.

Uncle John

Here is a photo of Alice's Uncle John Redmond before he went over to Europe for WWII. John was more of a Zen master than even me, a Tibetan spaniel! Alice says she's only ever met one other person with that sort of calm in humans: Ralph Smith, he who survived WWI trenches and WWII Saipan...

John served as a medic with Patton. He was there at the Moselle River on August 31, 1944 - just about 66 years ago today - when Patton's troops ground to a halt running out of gas while Ike sent the available gas to Montgomery who was not so fast as Patton.

I am sure John would have been very glad for that break at the Moselle - one of the few breaks he got while with Patton. A serendipidous Summer vacation.

WWII Army medics could take up arms to defend their patients. John did so when he had to despite being a signed and certified conscientious objector. He cleared out many German machine guns nests and organized at least one battlefield truce to clear the dead and wounded off. He came back to the USA with a silver star, a bronze star, and an Iron Cross, too. He gave them all away to neighbor kids. I think he knew the true meaning of those ribbons... So many had died all around him.... Life is so short for us all.

On a late Summer day in August in California in the year 2010 it's truly hard to imagine such large armies shooting at each other every day for months and months. I look to the Sun, let its warmth soak my fur coat and am so grateful I've never had to be in a shooting war in my home.

Way Down South

Today and yesterday, curlers went outdoors for a big national match in New Zealand! Check out the menu of what foods were to be had and how!!!

Just the place for me with a blanket and my person on a sunny day way down south.

GUEST BLOGGER: Max of Belvedere

Hi! I'm Max of Belvedere. Pabu and Alice asked me to guest blog about his visit to me and my family earlier this week.

I am a big and tall water dog. A real sailor. A salty dog, if you will. I'm just one year old but I already know all there is to know about racing and cruising sailboats in the northern San Francisco Bay. I also know just about every dog who likes to run and run and run in the park right down the hill from my house.

I take care of a big human family - four people!! I love it when Alisa and Laurence can telecommute from home instead of having to take the ferry to work in the City. My oldest boy is Afton who is already out of school for the Summer and my younger one is Connor whose Summer break starts this week. YEAH!!!

So, Pabu and I became friends after he made a perimeter patrol of my living room (he's a watchdog!!), shared some Greenies, and had a walk together. He showed me how to be ON WATCH even with his eyes closed dozing next to Alice on the couch when he alert-barked once - just once! - when a delivery man brought a package to the door for Laurence while I was dozing on the big pile of pillows on the chair by my Alisa as she computered. It took me a few seconds to wake up and realize someone had come to the door!

In the evening, Pabu and Alice went out on my current boat, the Moxie, for a sunset cruise. Laurence enjoyed having Alice's friends Diane and Allie, steer the boat while Alice held Pabu. Pabu says he loved watching the waves roll by, sniffing for porpoises - saw one!! - and looking for dogs on the other boats out that evening.

Pabu and I have decided that Alisa's new company, Dune Road Designs, needs to make some dog bowls in our sizes and that we should maybe sail together one day to try out such bowls!!

Fair winds to all!!!

[pictures by Allie]

A First Visit with Snoopy!

Art brought over his new Vespa today to show Alice and me. A shop in Santa Rosa last week attached a sidecar made in India. Art calls the two together "Snoopy". The seat in the sidecar is just my size. Art will have some stronger springs put into the Vespa to help carry the weight of the sidecar which is now squashing flat the Vespa's suspension. Once those springs are in, I see many trips in Snoopy in my future. If Alice comes along, she'll have to wear a motorcycle helmet, but I don't need one by law! (Alice says, maybe I should have a helmet, too, if we can find one that is comfortable for me! Can you see us in a motorcycle shop trying on helmets?)

My Birthday Party

Yesterday, I turned eleven. Today my human family threw a party for me. Or, maybe it was really for the human's Mother's Day? No matter. I showed the great-grandchildren how to play with my favorite toy, Blue Octopus. Catch me if you can! Tug of war. Grrr, grrrrrr!! Tiny Johnny caught on fast. The girls were surprised I could run so fast carrying Blue Octopus. At eleven, I am, still very spry.

Baby Birds

Sunset at the Baylands. A sign telling Alice to slow down when she drives - Baby Birds Crossing the Road - says the sign. All those duck, plover, and wader birdies toddling across the road. I hope they all make it, find mates of their own and have more birds. I like watching them flying and then ambling across the muddy bits and the shallow lakes at the Baylands. I suppose the little snails and such they eat aren't happy about more baby birds...