Alice and Pabu

Thanksgiving Memories

2011-12-02T18:32:00.008-07:00

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

2011-08-31T23:10:00.003-07:00

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

2011-06-17T01:27:00.006-07:00

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

2011-02-16T14:13:00.003-07:00

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!

2010-11-01T23:01:00.008-07:00

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

2010-10-10T22:47:00.002-07:00

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

2010-10-01T23:58:00.002-07:00

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

2010-09-13T18:24:00.003-07:00

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

2010-08-29T01:43:00.013-07:00

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

2010-08-28T00:30:00.004-07:00

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

2010-07-08T20:35:00.004-07:00

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

2010-06-18T15:30:00.008-07:00

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!

2010-06-13T15:18:00.003-07:00

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

2010-05-08T23:55:00.003-07:00

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

2010-05-08T23:50:00.005-07:00

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...

Alice Visits Dallas

2010-04-26T23:36:00.005-07:00

I'm glad Alice is home after four days in Dallas. Everything feels right with the world again. Balanced.
While she was away, I made the the acquaintance of two fuzzy kittens who thought I would be a new mother to them. They followed me everywhere. Wanted to find milk, maybe? Good luck! I'm a male dog!!!
Alice told me about the dogs she saw in Dallas. All were at the Meadows Museum. A pop-eyed black spaniel sitting on a lady's skirt in a tapestry made for a Spanish King - a king unable to keep Napoleon out of Spain. Exit said King to Rome, says Alice.
She looked a long time at the picture of Michol and the pets under his charge. They all look at bit too stiff. Something is wrong. What? It's not just they are all much too stiff. It seems they are worried they are not truly loved. Not truly cared for by anyone but each other. They are holding on to each other quietly. Furtively.
Downstairs at the Meadows, a book about economics from the 1600s caught Alice's eyes. She also stared at one about instructions to a Mr. Ugarte headed off northwest of Mexico City to convert the local Indians to Christianity. The instructions focused on winning their hearts with corruption instead of the sword. Hmmmm, says Alice.
But also downstairs was a portrait of a lady dressed up as a gypsy with a pink silk skirt under rows and rows of black tassels. She was quite the lady - and a business women too who made a bit of money from pine resin products. Her husband stared from the other side of the exhibit room. Hard to read what he was thinking. But she - she looked so balanced on her two small feet, skirts high enough to go up and down any stairs without tripping on the skirt. Rather daring and high for her time!

Comfy Pants

2010-04-16T00:31:00.003-07:00

Alice got some new stripey pants. She says they are very comfy and rather loud, being Loudmouth Pants. I wouldn't know. Dogs are colorblind! Here she was earlier this week helping to teach 145 people how to curl in San Jose in a photo taken by Gabrielle C. for NBCBayArea.com .
I am not sure about those pants. They may mean she will do more curling if they are that comfy. She assures me she is working on finding a place where I can watch curling - most likely somewhere outside like Ice Lakes or Caples Lake in the Sierra Nevadas where the ice is very thick in Winter. I would be glad to watch curling if I had a nice blanket and dog bed plus some warm chicken from a wide-mouth Thermos. A small treat of vanilla icecream would make my day. A small sled with extra blankets for me would be nice, too....

Timberline Pose

2010-04-02T14:06:00.004-07:00

For years and years, Alice has thought about a cut linoleum picture of a lady with a dog at Timberline Lodge. David Lynch made it in 1938 and calls it "A Walk in the Spring". It's very faded, but you can still see connection between the dog and the lady.

Dan Sullivan took this picture of me and Alice doing our best to channel the Timberline pair. He spread out on his stomach to get to my eye level! He made me feel so important. Maybe one day Alice will get a big piece of linoleum and then carve and paint it with me and her walking together forever and ever.

Watching Curling from the Olympics?

2010-02-23T17:57:00.006-07:00

Alice and I watched the tail end of the Canadian v. Chinese Mens game. It was nice... but.... no dogs in near that ice?

I much prefer the curling scene on Scotland's Lake of Mentieth last month. Lots of dogs there! It's fun to watch the dogs walking and running by. Sniffing and checking out the scene.

Alice had a discussion with Bonnie of San Francisco a little while ago. Both are interested in geology and Scotland, and of course curling, too. Here Alice is showing Bonny the Ailsa Craig Blue Hone insert in some curling stones. It's the same sort of insert the Olympic's curlers use!

Good curling to all.

Pabu and Pabu for Valentine's Day 2010

2010-02-16T13:36:00.005-07:00

Alice took me to T&C for a visit with Art, coffee for her, and a sniff-fest for me. Would you believe we met another "Pabu"! Here she is on Valentine's Day itself: Pabu the Pomeranian. Her person is Buddhist and picked the name from the same online list of Tibetan dog names my human family used. "Pabu" means puffball* in Tibetan. When I have a bath and blow dry I am pretty puffy, but Pabu the Pomeranian is puffier.

Here she is with her very special person. Kisses for all on Valentine's Day, and every other day, too!!!

Wasn't this a super special Valentine's Day treat to meet another Pabu?

* Pabu also is a saint and town in France and shorthand for birders for the painted bunting. Other than that it's just me and she!

Daffs and a Hawaiian Shirt

2010-02-06T14:44:00.004-07:00

The first daffodils bloomed at my house when I was at the vet's having surgery earlier this week. The very same day! Alice put a Hawaiian shirt on me to prevent me from scratching the incisions and stitches. She promises the shirt-thing is temporary. I hope so. I don't like wearing clothes. My permanent fur coat if just fine, thank you very much.

Alice always looks forward to the daffodils blooming. They started popping in the neighborhood last week. Any sunshine and they seem to grow several inches in seconds. For what it's worth, I prefer this line of small bushes to any daffs.

Many Have Outgrown Their Nannies

2010-01-10T22:03:00.008-07:00

Right after the Royal Caledonian Club announced Friday no official Grand Match for Lake of Menteith, serious curlers started a Facebook page to hold a big outdoor curling event themselves. http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?v=wall&ref=search&gid=268365730228

By Friday evening, they had floodlights on the ice and had started curling. About 2,000 had stepped onto the ice, with many curling there on Saturday. The first ever Facebook curling flashmob! Here is a photo from that Facebook's page's Heather McRea's heartstopping photo of a dog watching the curlers on the Lake at sunset.
See also http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/game-on-rebel-curlers-ignore-bonspiel-ban-1.997371

The local hotel, the Lake Hotel, had been doing good business with soup on the deck. I'll bet their business was great today, too. And will be great this entire week.

Curlers plan to be there on the aborted day, Tuesday, January 12, and do the match without the official sanction. (The "Glorious Twelfth" anyone?) Trossachs Mountain Search & Rescue has stepped up to provide emergency services. Viva the volunteers! http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/-Curlers-defy-safety-warnings.5970380.jp

Three cheers for all of those who have outgrown their nannies.

This is going all around Scotland electronically: "The Fiery Cross has been lit and as we speak is being electronically sent throughout our proud nation. Now is the time to arise from your slumbers and fight for our heritage. Contact your intended opposition if possible, and assemble at Lake of Menteith on Tuesday, to play the game we love. Allow time to mark your rink and prepare the surface. Above all, be careful, but enjoy the day. Forward the message to all who support civil liberty and the right to live as we choose."

The Nanny State?

2010-01-09T00:06:00.007-07:00

Well, 'twould seem the officials from the Royal Caledonian Curling Club (RCCC) have not the extreme huztpah of the Burning Man event organizers who safely get 50,000 people on and off a Nevada desert playa during an always lethally blistering Summer week with their own volunteer ranger/mediators and medical personnel. It seems the RCCC's Grand Match was scotched by some worries from the local constabulary about a wee number of curlers and their fans (10,000) arriving on a two-lane road with less than good driving and parking skills - plus some cooties about liability - and two local landowners who are not total fans of the Grand Match car parkers.

Hmmm.

Plenty of curling on outside ice in Scotland is happening anyway this winter- including many already curling on the Grand Match Aborted January 12, 2010 site itself, the Lake of Menteith. Bob Cowan's Skip Cottage Curling blog has the best info and news about such outdoor curling. Maybe a big Scottish match will happen on the Grand Match site next week....with or more likely without the suits from the RCCC. Maybe they could be inspired by the self-starters of Burning Man and provide their own "rangers" force as the Burners do to ensure as reasonably as possible everyone's safety?

Stay tuned...

Is the Grand Match on?!?

2010-01-07T19:21:00.006-07:00

Every last curler in Scotland is waiting for colder weather and an announcement that the Grand Match is on!

(Locally, Alice is also waiting for the call for the Mavericks surfing contest....both may be the same day!!!)

A Grand Match has not been held in more than 30 years. 251 games with 502 teams, each with 4 players each for a total of 2008 curlers! All on the ice, outdoors at the same time. Plus, as many spectators and plenty of "refreshments", too.

Seven inches of ice is needed. It looks like the Lake of Menteith may work this year. Keep your fingers crossed in the coming days for icy weather in Scotland and a good Pacific swell to the coast.

NASA just snapped a picture of snowy Great Britain. Looks good for the Grand Match!!!!

I Get a Gorilla

2009-12-26T13:02:00.005-07:00

I loooooooove my new stuffed toy gorilla. It's so soft. And, just the right size for me to rest my head upon. I gave Pika a colorful beanie hat complete with propeller. I think she likes it. She fell asleep wearing it!

Clara Leads the Parade

2009-12-26T12:56:00.004-07:00

Alice, Carolyn and I went out to Woodside to see the horses and ponies do the Peninsula Carriage Club Holiday Parade. Clara, the shire, led the way pulling a cart. She made a great show of pulling hard on an almost level road. Many of the equines and their people wore costumes. Here is a horse with a big red bow on its rear. I really like to smell and see the horses. Carolyn liked the miniature horses who brought up the rear of the parade. They really can trot fast!

Once Again ....where is the curling in Mexico?!

2009-12-17T01:22:00.003-07:00

Mexico City seems to have the claim to fame for having the largest ice rink in the world this month. Plus a snow track for snow bikes.... A figure skating show.... Big tents for snowball fights... But not a curling stone in sight!

Where, oh where are the denizens of the Embassy of Canada in Mexico City to rectify this horrid error? Were they too busy watching the Canadian curling Olympic playdowns this past weekend to notice this serious lack of curling under their noses?

At this moment, 'twould seem my hemisphere only has three curling-nations: Canada, USA and Brazil. With this oh-so-big-ice rink in Mexico, why is Mexico not yet on the curling map????

Not one stone!

My "Save" & Pika's Recovery

2009-12-12T11:55:00.005-07:00

Last night, I pulled on my littlest human cousin's diaper to keep him from falling over. He is so proud of getting up on his two feet - but he puts meaning into the word "toddler". I like him. He smells like my human family. And, his eyes sparkle at me.

Meanwhile, Alice is visiting Pika and other family members. Pika has had a rough time this week. Catherine coming and going, the phone ringing constantly, Agustin without much time for the So Important Dog Walks in la calle. Thursday morning things calmed down a bit. Here is Pika relaxing at breakfast that day.

Hoy es el dia de la Virgin de Guadalupe!, as they say in Mexico. Alice and Catherine listened last night to a wonderful children's chorus from Morelia at a church in San Miguel de Allende, the Oratorio. Lots of songs for the "Princessa Negra" and also for Christmas.

Pika says "I'm the Princessa Negra!"

Pabu says, this world is not so important. I've been a yak and lots of other creatures in past lives. Lots more lives to live...

Foxes! Deer! Coyotes!

2009-11-29T22:55:00.004-07:00

Here I am exhausted after dancing all over my favorite mondo grass parade ground just north of the Golden Gate Bridge. Many walks - really dancing and bouncing - here to sniff all the unusual creature smells not found on my regular walks.

OK, I once did see a red fox by my home... and several racoons over the years.... but no deer and coyotes here...

Pika, the black pug came, too.

I do kind of miss her now.... And the piles of people and turkey there's been over the past few days...

Veterans' Day

2009-11-12T01:06:00.007-07:00

San Jose had a big parade yesterday to honor all military veterans. Alice waved at a fellow pilot, Elsie, who was playing drums for the Los Gatos and Monte Sereno Pipe Band. Can't have a military parade without bagpipes and drums.
Alice only saw one dog marching. Here it is complete with a military jacket!
The train float remembering the "40 and 8" train carriages of WWI reminded Alice of her friend Ralph Smith who was placed into one of them most recently configured for 8 horses (instead of for 40 patients) after he was blown into a shell hole during WWI. Alice can still hear him describing that day and showing her the visible wounds on one of his hands.
Ralph always drank a glass of port every November 11th. Every Armistice Day. Remembering all those who died. A toast of port to Ralph and all the others.

H1N1

2009-11-11T23:42:00.009-07:00

Last Saturday, Alice told me she was going to Sunnyvale as a Red Cross volunteer to help the County distribute H1N1 vaccine. I know all about vaccines. Have to get rabies shots every three years.
The Sunnyvale clinic got from the USA's taxpayers 1,000 standard doses and 100 preservative-free designated for pregnant ladies to start getting the vaccine out quickly to vulnerable populations as long as there are still vaccine shortages. Blue numbered cards for the pregnant ladies and green numbered cards for the others with preference first given to kids under 12. The first shots started about 9:30 AM. Alice did lots of Spanish translating.
She thought the saints of the day were the peds nurses who gave shots to screaming kids sitting on their laps all day long. Alice noticed many of the over-5s had that "See my tantrum" look in front of their totally overwhelmed parents. Really it's just a sharp pinch. Very fast, says Alice.
Here are photos of all the empty vaccine vials and one of the vests the nurses wore. Every drop was used by 4:30 PM after the clinic supervisor and another nurse sucked up the last drops from every vial to make enough half doses for under-3-years-old for kids and other doses for other kids under 12 waiting in line after all the green cards had been passed out. Alice helped the clinic supervisor to tell the line of people waiting what would happen with those last "extra" doses after those who got the numbered cards got shots. There were less than 25 extra doses. All the kids in line at the end got a dose. I bet many went home to dogs ready to play like me!!

I'm Called a "Carriage Dog"

2009-10-30T01:53:00.018-07:00

Last week, I saw dogs aboard horse carts, gigs, phaetons, and all sorts of other very quiet vehicles. Ms. Sally aboard her antique green and wicker Country Carriage Cart said I look like a "carriage dog" and "would good in this!," her cart. I and Alice agreed it would suit me.

And here I was thinking the only dogs associated with horses are dalmatians! They are "coach dogs" meant to run on the ground... in the mud spatters.... not aboard with the people as all carriage dogs are.

So! Alice and I watched at a very nice farm called Clay Station Horse Park in the California Central Valley Class 21, Carriage Dog, sponsored by Mandy and Lacey Miner, both dogs. 60% of the class score depends 100% on the dog. It can't be "restrained" in any way. Must stay aboard happily and quietly. Ms. Sally hadn't a dog with her, but here are some pictures of Alice's favorites.

The Corgi puppy in a basket being pulled by a Joel, the big Belgian. It was the puppy's first time ever in a cart! (The puppy did not win... a basket is considered being restrained, I suppose).

This terrier displayed a great sense of fun laying quietly on the bench by the "whip" as the driver is known.

And here is Calliope with Ms. Brenna, her groom, and the tandem ponies Fascination and Peekaboo pulling a Pacific Smart Cart.

I wonder how my pug friend would do in this event? One can't bark in it..... I never heard a dog bark the entire afternoon.... We know that would scare the horses, skittish things they are.

Here are Fascination and Peckaboo jammed in between the horses in the Final for Class 24 Ladies-to-Drive. That squeezing was considered a bit of bad form... but typical for those with "Shetland" in the blood. They can pull twice their weight while those draft horse like the Belgian can only pull half their weight. Don't mess with a Shetland... not ever.... I see the big Clydesdale/Paint Cross who won the class pulling a Spider Phaeton gave them respect while standing next to them.

All and all, a very nice day sitting under the shade trees on my bicycle blanket, snacking on Greenies and seeing what Alice had in her picnic basket. I shall dream of sitting next to Alice behind a pony with fur matching the color of the tips of my ears..... And a basket full of Greenies, water, and chicken sandwiches under our seat.

St. Francis and Me

2009-10-15T15:09:00.004-07:00

I was blessed at St. Albert's last week. Got lots of attention from a gentle man who put water on my head and gave me a St. Francis medal. It was great fun to meet many other dogs, even a few cats, too.

Alice put the medal on my best halter. It's a reminder of how special all animals are, she said.

I never really though about the real Mr. St. Francis before. I often walk by San Francisco Bay named after him. To me it was just the smells of pickle weed, shore birds, mud flats, and lots of wind. My new medal jiggling on my halter makes me know for sure that I am special.

Patches B-Day

2009-09-26T17:23:00.002-07:00

Alice and I were invited to spaniel Patches' birthday party at the local school yard. He wore a rainbow ribbon. His new neighbors Corina - who looks like him, and Pizza - who is sniffing my rear in this photo came, too. So did tall curly Marcy who is related to poodles. The people had cake and fruit while the dogs got carob mini-cupcakes.

I left early. Pizza, the little puppy, still thinks he needs to "dominate" every dog, me, even big Marcy, too. Growling once and snarling once at him did not educate him. I wonder when he will grow up? He always seems fascinated with my curled tail flipped over my back. I suppose that is because he knows mostly only the spaniels who carry their tail lower.

I really hope he grows up before he meets a dog who bites if provoked.

20 Mule Team

2009-09-23T22:16:00.003-07:00

Herding cats is not as tough as driving a 20 mule team...

Stig's Stella

2009-09-23T20:46:00.003-07:00

Just as things were getting back to normal in the House of Stig, his companion, fellow cat, Stella, decided she needed an adventure, too. Off she went. And, she isn't saying where...
Naturally her people became worried. They printed up "LOST CAT" posters for her which said the family loved her and wanted her back as the posters for Stig had said. As soon as the people had put up at least the same number Stig got, Stella flounced back home. Here is a photo of her looking satisfied. Very satisfied, indeed.
I now know what the people mean when they talk about copycats.

The Adventures of Stig

2009-09-14T14:51:00.004-07:00

This is Stig, a neighborhood cat.

In August, posters popped up on telephone poles with a photo of Stig. I like sniffing his big cypress trees and his citrus trees. I always look for him and his family members when I patrol around his sidewalk. And, yes, I let him know I was there. Always do.

Alice was concerned about Stig. I was not. I knew exactly where he was, but can the people always understand what I say? Noooooooo.

More than a week after the posters appeared, Alice stopped to talk with a human neighbor who was looking at a roof while standing in front of several saucers of water and cat food. A "Siamese" had been living on the roof, crying for several nights, the lady said, and she was concerned he could not get down for water and food.

Stig is a solid grey Euro Burmese, not a Siamese.

Alice was not worried. There had been several days of 100F weather and that roof cat had to be able to get down or it would not have survived that long.

Alice also knew a new cat had moved into a house backing up to the roof with the cat. If a "Siamese" had wandered into the area, a cat turf war may have started driving a small cat up to a roof.

I screamed at Alice, that roof cat is Stig!!! She got the message and started asking the lady watching the roof some questions. The cat was small and athletic looking. Perhaps Stig? Check. It had yellow eyes and a red collar. Bingo! Stig.

Alice walked the lady over to the nearest poster a couple of blocks away. "That's him!' shouted the lady when she saw Stig's photo.

That night, Stig's people came with a ladder and Stig got himself down. Slept for two days straight once he got home.

The evening after Stig was rescued, a big yellow neighborhood cat was sitting on the center of my walkway waiting for Alice and me to return in the car. Staring at us, not in a friendly way. It was not pleased at all. It told Alice she should not interfere with cat business. She got the message but told the cat there is room in the neighborhood for all the cats. There is enough food and water for them all. Be nice! she said, you may need to be rescued one day yourself. It stalked off. A bully.

Alice and I are really not cat people nor do we like bullies at all. But no one should ever be stuck on a roof, not even a cat.

Sunspot Meditating

2009-07-20T16:46:00.004-07:00

Watched Tom Watson play golf yesterday morning. He was Ellie's favorite golfer. We'd watch him together on her TV. Alice remembers watching him with Ellie decades ago. He was always calm. A gentleman and sportsman. The nastier the weather, the calmer he would be.
Alice and I watched closely his big four hole play-off in the Open at Turnberry, Scotland. A links course. Lots of real Scottish rough. A big white hotel. A beach. Ailsa Craig off in the Irish Sea where most curling stone granite was mined. Alice has spent a lot of time with Ailsa Craig rocks....
We imagined together walking on that course on a windy Summer night. I might like to jump around those seagrass rough spots looking for golf balls - if they smelled like Greenies I would find them no matter how deep the rough! I would put my nose directly into the wind and smell the sea blowing from Ailsa Craig.
Alpenglow started as the players got their prizes. They all looked golden like my fur.

Trace and Squirrels

2009-07-17T13:20:00.004-07:00

Here is my friend Trace, a terrier. We like to sniff and pee together, run and chase. His people are putting in an whole new front yard for him this week. A new wood fence with lots of places for him to look through, lots of new bushes, a BIG jacaranda tree, BIG bouganvillia, and a stone patio perfect for neighborhood watching through a new mock orange hedge. Could he be any luckier?
Alice wishes he would have spent more time by our front yard last week. The squirrels got every single apricot. Over 50 pounds worth. Alice had to pick them up for several days before they rotted and fruit flies had grandchildren. Aaaaaargh, says Alice. Maybe next year she will put some netting on some of the branches?
Trace likes to bark at squirrels. Any apricot tree would be safe in his yard.

Too Cold For Me?

2009-07-02T17:36:00.003-07:00

Alice left me for many, many hours. She said I would be too cold. There would not be enough time for walks. Too risky with too much paint to stain my fur coat. Not a place me? So I waited. And waited. Now I can see ..... perhaps..... she was right. Much too much paint. No good places to curl up and get warm there.

Apricots and a BIG Zuke

2009-06-29T19:01:00.002-07:00

I watched Alice wash and chop apricots from neighbor's trees on Sunday. Some baked to eat now, lots more frozen with lime juice for later. Plenty for Thanksgiving chutney, she says.
Roger's first zuke is a big one. It's as wide as my noggin! I hope the people don't try to make me eat it.

Needles the Wonder Dog

2009-06-17T19:35:00.006-07:00

Alice was away for a bit earlier this month. She has been slowly telling me what she did. I think the first most important thing she did was to think of me when she saw Burden's Urban Light at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Scores of real and old lightposts. What fun for us dogs! How truly beautiful for the people to look at all times of the day and night! Easy to see from a very busy street. Not hidden like that expensive 2% "public (ha!) art" in our town at the pumping station...
Alice then spent some time in a sunken garden with a lawn and hollyhocks. Tucked behind some flowers was this little cross.

It has a picture for Needles the Wonder Dog, a doberman who used to spend lots of time in that garden. Here is another picture of Needles.
I think Needles spent a lot of time at the old El Garces Hotel in Needles, California. One day I expect I will go to Needles and to that sunken garden, too, to sniff the hollyhocks and commune in a sunspot with all the happy dogs who have sniffed there.

More for May 27

2009-06-17T19:23:00.003-07:00

After baseball viewing, Alice took me to see the latest "public art" project in our town. Here I am in front of it - the first photo Alice FINALLY has been able to download direct from her phone to computer once she bought a new cable, downloaded a driver, read the FAQs.....
Guess what the "art" it is!
Hints: You have to drive along a frontage road of a big highway, pull in an unmarked driveway, park and walk behind a building to see it. "Storm Water Pump" page 3. Rumor is the artist got thousands of dollars (10K+?) and this is her second or third city commission.
Alice told me yesterday she herself would like to buy several spray paint cans and go paint similar squiggles on the side of the building facing the big highway so that at least some people could see a "work of art". She offers here and now to do it for the cost of the paint cans if her city would deign to have art visible to the highway drivers instead of for just those who love scavenger hunts and similar Milard Filmore Trivia Hunts.
I, however, would prefer any paint used to be the scratch and sniff variety. Smelling like all my favorite neighbor dogs.... and a nice patch of real grass with wonderful smells to lawn dive into.....hmmmm.... THAT would really be Great Art, no?!

Games

2009-05-27T22:00:00.002-07:00

I saw baseball for the first time this past weekend. Not totally sure what it is all about. Alice says it's like T-ball and Whiffle Ball - which I have seen. Pika's Big Guy likes the game as does Roger. Maybe I will see one of them play one day at this field?
Here I am thinking. Is baseball a big metaphor for life?

Snow Lions

2009-05-02T00:14:00.003-07:00

Last night, Alice went to inspect the many embroidered and painted snow lions at the Bhutan art exhibit in San Francisco for another week. She is wondering if I ever dream of having a Snow Lion's white fur body with my tail, mane and leg fringes all blue. Maybe my distant relative Sophie does? If I were to be embroidered I think I should like to be relaxed like Sophie.

Aggie and Maggie's New Lambs

2009-04-26T16:26:00.003-07:00

Yesterday, Alice came home with the smell of a brand new lamb in her arms. She held a Cheviot lamb born just a week ago and patted another born early Saturday morning. The mommas Aggie and Maggie were not pleased their lambs were being held. They walked around the people bleating "Give it back! Put it down!!" But, it's important for the lambs to be used to being held and being close to people.
Yesterday, the ram, the two lambs born last year and the momma who gave birth last week all were sheared. The young stood shivering afterwards sticking close to their father. Here's what young Annee looked like last year with her momma, Aggie.
Lots of dogs got to see the lambs from a safe distance: Swiss dogs Zen and Geiger, a golden lab search dog, a beagle named Errol... Maybe I will get to see them this week.
In the late afternoon the newest lamb was sitting down facing the setting sun. Alice thought how it would soon be facing its first night, snuggled close to its still fleecy momma. Listening just a few feet away to one of its people inside a house spinning orange wool from its relatives while its momma and aunt had their evening snack of pineapple rinds, chard and other lettuce leaves.
It's amazing to think of that littlest lamb, brand new, trotting up and down all over its paddock, chasing its cousin, spinning and wagging its tail in joy while sucking milk from its momma.
I'm sure it's momma said the Sun would come up this morning and many other things a lamb must know.

Conmael and the Windsor Greys

2009-04-05T13:52:00.019-07:00

Last week was all about Irish moss and spring bulbs with halibut or beef plus rhubarb shortcake for some of my human family celebrating something or other in California, while in London, Conmael, the Irish Wolfhound; and Daniel, Stevenson, McCarthy and San Anton, all Windsor Greys, got to meet Laster's people, Felipe and Margarita. The people in London got to eat halibut or beef, too, plus a charlotte with "Balmoral" redcurrants that evening. I hope Conmael and the Greys got something extra tasty, too.

Not sure if Pika's Big Guy got to meet last week any of that pack of corgis who all know well the Windsor Greys. I offered to send through him to that pack some tiny Greenies plus a large size one for Comnal, but he was traveling light and fast dashing from continent to continent. Maybe Felipe and Margarita brought something for the dogs and their human hosts? I know Felipe works for all us dogs and all of nature, too!
Or perhaps they got something from the driver of this car in their backyard last week?
I think Pika's Guy was very sorry not to meet Daniel and his team. They are indeed something special in the horse world. Still..... which would you rather do? Get stuck in a closed coach in chilly weather or have a picnic - with dogs aboard! - in Baja California?
Here is Alice earlier this year working on learning how to drive a pair of Mexican Azteca horses named Palmero and Forestero. A fox terrier is ready to jump aboard. We dogs really like open carriages and buggies low enough to jump on and off. When Alice drives in Baja she gets to take along *all* the local dogs: fox terriers, a doberman named Sprago (who is always aboard first as the top dog), a shepard, and others who take turns getting aboard. The terriers, especially Mara, love to play chicken with the horses by laying down in their trotting paths! If I had been there, I would have sat next to Alice on the bench where the other dogs are not allowed to go.

I think Conmaeal deserves to come to Baja with the Windsor Greys for some driving in the hot sun. I'll dream of him onboard a well-sprung buggy with me, Pika, Laster, Sprago and Mara instead of him just sitting on the cold pavement in London town. If I dream it hard enough, he and Pika will feel the Baja Sun on their fur.

Tulips and More Tulips

2009-03-28T17:57:00.002-07:00

Got to sniff around the Gamble Garden today with my good walking friends, Karen and Gay. They know about dogs! But today, I think they preferred paying more attention to flowers while on some walks to see tulips and cherry blossoms then concentraing on me. I still don't understand why people care so much about flowers when plants and lawns with p-mail are so much more interesting. Still... have had lots of nice lap sitting with my people family and friends today! Life is good!!
I feel Summer is coming. Soon the tulips will fade and the hot times will come. Backyard BBQ. T-ball games on the lawn. People eating on the back porches instead of inside after long, long days.
Spring is nice... but I prefer Summer even though Alice tell me she likes Fall and Spring the best. And blue sky and fluffy snow days, too, she says.

While I Doze in the Sun....

2009-03-22T14:07:00.006-07:00

I'm recovering from a nasty infection. Flattened me for a week. Only starting to trot on walks again today...
Alice spied an ad for an art auction about dogs. Here are some she liked. I wonder if this means I might one day have another picture painted of me? I like this one of a serious English Pointer. Focused on something interesting off to one side. A bird? A person? A dog peeking out of a window?
And this one of a little puppy. Makes me think of my puppyhood when my feet seemed too big and too awkward.
Finally, an Irish setter with something appropriate in the mouth instead of those moogy tennis balls. That's what those setters should be doing - dashing around fields flushing birds and bringing them back for their person to cook into tasty treats for the people.... and the dogs, too, of course! I'd be glad to try some perfectly cooked game bird with a bit of cooked barley one day.... hopefully.... maybe.....

Curling Things

2009-03-09T21:43:00.004-07:00

A big package arrived from LL Bean a couple of weeks ago. This bag was inside. Alice said it's meant to look like the Golden Gate Bridge. Jacquie who made Pika's person's wedding dress sewed on a patch. Then, Alice put her curling shoes, kneepad, gloves and some other things inside. (I wish she would put me inside when she takes it to the ice rink....)
This week lots of curlers are in upstate New York for the Club Nationals. A ladies team from the Hollywood Club is representing California. They have the best uniform so far. The pink and black Bond Girls! They get a lot of nice comments about their kilts. They make Alice think the NorCal ladies should get some kilts too..... Hmmmm...what tartan to pick? How about the official California State tartan? One can get dog leashes in that.....hint, hint, Alice!

First Hanami of 2009 - for Patsy

2009-02-20T03:12:00.005-07:00

A walk in a park while out with Alice. Blue skies, warm sun, snow covered mountain tops in the distance, and slightly damp grass. Perfect for walking. I could stretch out for hours while Alice enjoys the blossoms.
I heard from Pele today about his loss of Patsy. She's off on her next life. I am sure she will be a human, perhaps a monk in a warm and peaceful clime? Yes, she deserves that. Farewell Patsy, my big and gentle friend. May you be showered with cherry blossoms every year until you find your own Nirvana.

Gabrielle Goes to Olympic Trials!

2009-02-18T17:59:00.006-07:00

Alice was out very late last night curling. She came back smelling of ice and fleece. I don't know why she doesn't take me to see curling. There is a nice lounge overlooking the sheet of ice with a fire, carpet and lounge chairs. Here is the view!

.

Hmmmm. Maybe she is afraid I would make silly faces or be bored? I promise, no funny faces if someone could hold me in their lap with a blanket to stay warm.... But honestly, when Alice does something I don't like (aka too cold, too wet, not enough chicken to eat...) I just sulk and wait...no silly faces.
Last night one of Alice's hands smelled of Barry Ivy since she shook his hand after curling to recognize his success at coaching the first California Lady, Gabrielle, to the Olympic Trials this month. I doubt Gabrielle will be silly at the Trials. Maybe she will see my silly face photo and laugh. When one has "trials" it's always good to laugh no matter what.

Chocolate Curling Stones

2009-02-13T20:04:00.004-07:00

Pika's people went to Davos, Switzerland and got Alice some chocolate curling stones. This picture makes it seem I like chocolate but really I was just savoring some kibble flavor in my mouth when Alice interrupted my afternoon kibble snack to show me these fancy chocolates. One of Pika's people says things are very expensive there. A cup of coffee is about $30US. I doubt that. But if so, they should stick to cheap fun like dog walking.... and curling!, says, Alice. I bet she'll save those chocolate stones for a special occasion which ought to be just a cold day, a warm blanket and a cozy with me!!

2009 and The Rag Carpet

2009-01-24T16:33:00.003-07:00

Here I am yesterday on my old kitchen carpet. I helped Alice guard a big house high in the hills where this carpet is for the moment. A rainy day. I just wanted to stay warm, keep my paws dry and have holdings with Alice.
I'd not seen that carpet in many years. It's funny how things and people come in and out of one's life. I walked into the room with it. Stopped dead in my tracks. Sniffed an edge of it. Alice told me, yes, it was my carpet, but it took me away to feel cmfortable to sit on it.
Here I am with the carpet when I was just about a year old. I was watching my Ellie do something while Dan took this picture.
Alice remembers helping Ellie pick out the colors of that carpet to match the Lady Bird Johnson wildflower wallpaper in the kitchen years before I was born.
I wonder where that carpet will be in another ten years? And if anyone will remember it was was mine and Ellie's? And that the colors were so carefully picked?

Pika and I "Do Snow"

2009-01-01T01:17:00.004-07:00

So.... I saw snow for the first time in this lifetime. The crunchy and icy variety. Perhaps I will tunnel in soft new snow someday?
Pika has to wear a coat in snow. And, she shivers easily. She wore her Mexican Boy Scout coat and that helped a bit. Here she is being held and here is what she saw. I think she was pretty impressed with that place. Lots to sniff and see.
Even more to sniff and see in 2009, says Alice.
Happy New Year!

I Love Christmas

2008-12-27T13:43:00.003-07:00

Alice and I have been going here and there celebrating with family and friends. Lots of meat! Lots of people sitting around the fires! Lots and lots and lots of walks. A new chirping squirrel toy for me from Alice and a plusk orange flower/rope ty from Pika, my puggy furry relative. Alice and I gave Pika a bag of teenie Greenies. (I hope I get some of those...)
Wishing all my friends and family a Very Happy New Year!

Ruckudda-Ruckudda-Ruckudda

2008-12-10T20:02:00.004-07:00

A man came to my house with a big machine. Alice said it was for rooting out tree roots and other things caught in the out-flow water pipes. Many hours later.... and three different City utility trucks later with four different City employees and contractors ..... things are almost back to normal.

Lots of tree roots were found and dragged out very noisily, mostly if not all from the City side. Two different cameras are going down the holes tomorrow to see exactly where and if any pipes are broken and where the roots got in. City will put poison down there which will hold off roots for one year.

But... they will come back and the pipes are just about a 100 years old...

Here is what a neighbor two doors away is doing today. Dug out all the whole ceramic sectioned pipes and replaced with black plastic pipes in her front yard. What an expensive mess, says Alice.

Thank you City trees. I guess this is payback for all the pee-ing me and other dogs do on the trees?

Travels

2008-11-24T16:43:00.004-07:00

I'm off on a 3-house adventure tomorrow. Lots to see. More to sniff. I'm lucky to have lots of human friends and dog friends Holly and Penny, too, who welcome me for overnights. Here is Holly visiting one of my houses!
My travels make Alice remember her visit to a repro of Columbus's favorite ship, La Nina. I would not like it, she said. All the floors slope. No good traction for furry paws. Only one place to get warm - a stuffy damp room with no windows. And Mr. Columbus only had a mini-room for privacy so small he could not stand up! I doubt there were any Happy Camper Dogs on La Nina.
May everyone have a warm and cozy Thanksgiving Day with friends and family.

Mary and a Boojum

2008-11-23T13:10:00.004-07:00

Went over to sniff the Stanford Cactus Garden with Mary and Alice yesterday. Mary is in town to help a friend who had surgery to rebuild a heart destroyed by Marfan's disease. Mary looked at the Boojum trunk at the Garden and told Alice that's what happened to her friend's heart.
Alice introduced Mary to Peet's Coffee and to all the dogs and people at our closest Peet's. I think Mary was glad to get out of the hospital and under the Sun for a while. I hope her friend gets to see the Sun, too, soon.

Ernie's Getting a Girl!

2008-11-12T18:01:00.002-07:00

My dog pal Ernie is getting a little human girl as soon as his lady-person comes back from the hospital. Ernie went to a baby shower for the little girl. Here he is sniffing some of the loot. He will get to smell the baby before she comes home since his people plan to wrap her up in one of the new blankets and let him sniff it before she comes home. Isn't Ernie lucky? Aren't his people smart and considerate of us dogs?

Election Smmmm'elections

2008-11-04T19:41:00.004-07:00

Here I am this morning. Tucked up on the bed of clover at Sta. Rita. Hmmmmm. Tempurpedic.
Alice said something about an election today. I saw her put her absentee ballot in her purse to drop off at the local polling place. She doesn't like the computer voting machines. I don't either. They hum suspiciously. And she doesn't like to waste stamps to snail mail a ballot.
Can't say I'm excited about this Big Human Election. No dogs are on the ballot. No Liberty, Ranger, Falla, Rex, or any other dogs in sight for the big race. No ponies, horses or donkeys either.
I had a vote last week when Alice gave me 6 Greenies to choose from. I quickly sniffed over all of them twice and then grabbed one. I suppose that is what the people are doing today in the neighborhood. As Alice says, "Pinch your nose - or sniff if you must - and just pick one." I have peed on a lot of election signs in my neigborhood. Takes luck and talent to nail those thin wire supports...
Alice wonders if "she" is still voting in Chicago. She voted there once while in college. The tombstones vote there she says.... (Rather worried, she checked the Cook County registrar's website tonight and found no listing for herself. Whew!, she says.)
Just for historical perspective tonight, as Will Rogers would say, "We have the best Congress money can buy."

Corn Bee

2008-10-22T16:08:00.012-07:00

Alice brought back from Pie Ranch four ears of popcorn corn. I watched while she showed two people how to braid them together. It made me think of corn fields, barn cats, and Bella, a dog Alice met at the corn harvest, husking and braiding bee earlier that day. Must say, I was more interested in the smell of Bella on Alice than I was with corn.

Sunset, ocean smells.
Bella and people sit in a circle
Braiding popcorn for Winter.

That might make a nice Japanese waka poem if Alice ever paints Bella - or me! - with the corn.

Chinese "Thank You" Scrolls

2008-10-15T00:18:00.009-07:00

This Summer and Fall, Alice has had some Chinese scrolls on the living room walls. They looked different every few weeks. Some new ink artwork one week, some more bright red "chops" the next. Finally, some caligraphy was added.
Many people helped to create them. Ao and Pat's Jasmine helped Alice find the blank scrolls in a Beijing shop. Sopranos Janice and Yumi did the art. Janice painted Stanford Taiko on the Great Wall of China for Mrs. Bing, and Yumi painted Steve and Jindong along with some of those they conducted in China this past June and July. Carolyn K. and Lisa did the Chinese caligraphy, and Yumi added some Japanese caligraphy for Steve since he and his family can speak Japanese. The Great Wall scroll has the title "Cosmic Flames" in honor of the piece of music Stanford commissioned for chorus, orchestra and taiko for performance in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing right before the Summer Olympics 2008.
More than a hundred singers and musicians who performed Cosmic Flames so far have added their own chops. Alice added a chop with my Chinese name included in her Chinese chop. So I'm on those scrolls, too! Perhaps more than a hundred others who went on that Stanford/China Music Tour will add some more chops and perhaps also some more caligraphy.
This week my Roger is in China. Perhaps he might have a scroll made there? It's weird, Alice says. Steve's Dad* was a POW from Japan stuck in Siberia after WWII, and Roger is visiting this week an infamous POW camp in China where horrific "medical" experiments were done on Allied POWs. I wonder what a Chinese/Japanese/English scroll might look like to commemorate this weekend? Perhaps something with many individual's sayings and chops? Like those old well-loved scrolls with many people's additions. Layers and layers of meanings....

*I.A. Sano "One Thousand Days in Siberia"

My Thoughts about "Credit Crisis"

2008-10-12T14:33:00.005-07:00

I've been hearing lots on the radio news about the "Credit Crisis". Thanks to my many past lifetimes on many continents, I know exactly what is going on and why. So do those cows on the Vineyard.
It's just like those two dogs who barked and growled at me on my big daily walk today from behind their fences. They think they need to bark. They can't help it. They want to tell me they are big (when they are not) and powerful (they are not) and THIS is only THEIR yard I am walking by. They are really just afraid and haven't lived as many lives as I to know barking and growling does not get you anything good. I only bark if I really have a good reason and when I do I usually only give a big dog bark once or twice until my person pays attention. Firm, concise. No whining. No fear.
Fear. By USA congresscritters and executive branch wienies who think they won't get relected unless they pander to fill-in-the-blank lobbyists and voters such that there must be Class A Nuts-o-Rama laws allowing the idiot credit gamblers to run amock. Allowing people to continue to get credit with credit cards at ridiculously high interest rates - over 35%! - when they can never pay for it. Pika's person calls that debt slavery. Or allowing banks to gamble more than 30 dollars for every actual dollar they have. Those stupido "Ninja" home loans.
One has to be responsible. For example, I make sure my paws are clean every night. You never know when you might have to walk through snow where fluffy clean paws will be necessary. I save nubbins of Greenies for the times my Greenies stocks get low. I make sure to take care of my health by having a good sunsoak every day if the sun is out until I am panting hot. Kills of lots of bad internal bacteria and viruses you know! And no matter what, never ever panic.

Estoy un perro faldero!

2008-10-10T16:55:00.005-07:00

Some people are as happy in their skin as I am. I have no problem being a lap dog. Nor with being so cute I am often mistaken for a girl dog despite being quite male.
Being a lap dog is a great job. Never out in the cold with frostbitten paws. No shortage of nice food and clean water. Nice people to give one massages.
We even have uber he-man support in California Governor "Aaaaahnult" Schwarzeneger who vetoed a state law 'tother week which would have killed the lapdog's primary job while in cars with their people. Can you imagine someone tried to stop us from doing our jobs with our people while we drive around?!
Found out today in Spanish-speaking places we lapdogs are known as "perro falderos". Skirt-dogs. Now I know why I like to peek out from under Alice's skirt at the world when she wears a long one and I'm on the ground under her chair.
Viva los perros falderos!!

Tavi

2008-10-01T13:18:00.006-07:00

Here is a dog I've met only by smell. And he, Tavi, has met me only by smell. One day we will meet in person.
Tavi is a working dog. He takes care of his Priscilla and watches everything in the house. Here he is on duty watching a man looking for termites and other bugs in the house. Tavi, like all dogs with good noises could tell the man where any bugs are if any, and more importantlu, where the biscuit box is. Rewards for good dogs. Or just because life is great, no?
And, that is a bottom line thought.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting

2008-09-13T00:38:00.004-07:00

I am a Zen Master. Today I waited a lot in the grey car. Much more fun than waiting at home, sniffing the same old, same old. But what are we waiting for, Alice?

Sticking Close to Alice

2008-09-10T17:12:00.004-07:00

Alice came back to me after a week away. Said she went to Boston and the "Cape and Islands". I sniffed her all over. Whiffs of clam chowder, Dunkin' Donuts, and sea water. I sniffed her new bright green hat with a big "B" on it. Not sure what that means. She said it had something to do with socks? Red socks?

Here is what she saw her first morning there. Bright morning sun hitting the tall buildings across a harbor. She said I would have liked sniffing around a brick patio there after a morning snack - but it was a bit cold and damp. I'd have needed a blanket to curl up upon.

She left from that same place a week later yesterday. Security was tough at the airport. She realized it was close to 9/11. No one smiled at the Boston/Logan TSA security check.

A few days ago the Boston Globe had an item about the new memorial to 9/11 at Logan. A steel box, walls of flippy glass, ceiling of suspended shards of glass, inside two tall panels with the names of those murdered on the two planes which left Logan direct to the New York Twin Towers.

My furry relative, Pika, heard a plane zoom by her apartment on the Potomac River. She barked when it hit the Pentagon. I remember sitting with my first forever person that day as we all watched the TV and the towers came down and the fires raged.

The morning photo makes Alice think of 9/11. And, also that under all those new tall buildings, Benjamin Franklin was born, Paul Revere had his shop, and lots of other real patriots worked, thought and dreamed. I think I know what they would think about if they were alive tomorrow. I don't think they would dwell on any anniversaries. Instead they would marvel at what "their" harbor looks like today. They would want to zip up and down elevators in the tallest buildings and take off in the fastest jet to see the what's what.

More Olympics

2008-08-18T14:59:00.012-07:00

Alice watched the ladies marathon 'tother day as they ran through the Temple of Heaven gardens and as they whizzed through Tsinghua University. I object to the whole Olympic thing - still put off by the fact dogs are not welcome. Not one in sight. I suppose it is too hot for dogs?
Random thoughts by Alice-- That white Pekingese in Beijing with a summer clip seen by Irene. The Tibetan Spaniel Alice saw her first morning in Beijing, trotting along on leash outside the Temple of Heaven wall. White with chestnut spots. Fluffy.
The two Papillons near her hotel. One white. One pale chesnut. Little tongues hanging out, panting.
Apparently in Beijing, dogs are not very welcome. All must be rather short. All must be walked only on certain streets at certain times. Always on leash. Always accompanied by their person with the dog papers. "Papers! Now! Show your PAPERZZZZ!"
The Olympics authorities demanded dogs be taken off the menus in that Northern Capitol city for the duration of the Olympics. As I say, not a place for dogs.

Alice is still mad she did not hear Ode of Joy at the Olympic Cermemonies. Lip-synching by an actress replacing a singer whose teeth were not approved at the very last minute by a Politburo member. (You just can't make this stuff up, says Alice.) And, she really can't stand the medal ceremony music. Bland-o-rama, she said. Loops too quickly, too.

The horses at the Olympics seem to be having a good time. Lots of vets. Lots of air conditioning. Water misters. They all looked great and seemed to be happy. Alice approved of the orange jacket worn by a Dutch rider for the stadium jumping contest.

Must think ever more positively, I say! So, Alice says she liked the fact a lady runner ran in a short skirt yesterday instead of in her undies as many seem to do. Would be interesting to see a lady dressed like this riding or throwing a javelin.
Better, of course, to be walking a dog INSIDE the wall of the Temple of Heaven. Stretching out for a cool under the covered corridor by the temple watching the man water paint on the smooth stones.
How about this idea: a marathon dog walk event? With stops allowed for tea and water breaks for walkers and dogs. Wouldn't that be great! Wouldn't that be better, humans, than running in your undies without your dog and collasping from heat and pain? Paper parasols for sunny days could be allowed.
And forget rhythmic gynmastics. Dancing with Your Dog would be much, much better.

PS All us dogs got word from Herman, the bulldog, that he is glad his person - the Young-Man-Who-Smells-ALWAYS-of-Chlorine, can relax and hopfully have more time for his dog very soon. For the record, Herman would endorse any product that removes 100% that smell of chlorine from his person and does not make his person or himself itchy. And, yes, Herman would like to see a dog event at the Olympics, too. Walking? Crate napping?

And, of course, dog skateboarding. That white clipped Peke in Beijing needs a skateboard. Now!

Beethoven in Beijing

2008-08-07T15:39:00.004-07:00

Here is Alice, fourth row from the back, fourth in from the right, at the Great Hall of the People last month. Ready to sing Beethoven's Ode to Joy and a new piece by Zhou Long in honor of the Olympics. She said the audience liked best an encore piece they did of a famous Chinese folk song about a jasmine flower.
But, a month later, what sticks in Alice's mind about that afternoon of practices and an evening performance is the Janitor-Banana Man. Under the stage by the performers' dressing rooms and don't-go-there-you-don't-want-know bathrooms, was a man handing out bananas from Del Monte cartons. Most everyone wanted one. Alice remembers getting one, saying thank-you in her best Chinese, and him looking at her like a sheepdog would a wolf while guarding a flock.
A bit later, some fellow singers got trapped on the "wrong" side of the Hall while looking for clean bathrooms for the audience VIPs. Three layers of uniformed soldiers prevented them from getting backstage despite their performers' passes until Mr. Janitor Banana found them and escorted them backstage. Alice does not think he is simply a Janitor.
The Great Hall of the People will always remain in Alice's mind as the Domaine of Mr. Janitor Banana, the savior of some fellow singers, and a man who outranks all soliders there.
Tomorrow, Ode to Joy will be sung at the Bird's Nest. Perhaps some of the singers from Peking University and Tsinghua who sang with Alice that night will be in the Olympic chorus? And maybe also with some of the wonderful soloists they had: Don Mingxia, Zhu Quiling, Chi Liming and Yang Xiaoyong.

Pika

2008-08-06T13:37:00.002-07:00

Been thinking about Pika today. Normally, I ignore her. Haven't figured out yet what she sees in that "funky kitty" toy. Everytime she starts to explain it while clamped on the kitty she just makes sounds like, "Wuurf,hmmm,liiiiick."

Still I kinda miss her. Got used to having her around in my big grass yard last month.

Charlie Checkpoint and a Charlie Card

2008-08-06T00:56:00.004-07:00

Alice has been singing the old Kingston Trio song, "M.T.A." to cheer herself up about that thin brown wall.
Poor old Charlie, who couldn't get off that Boston MTA subway train, stuck below without a nickel during a fare increase. A couple of years ago, Boston created the "Charlie Card" to allow riders to avoid having to deal with coins and tokens. Alice got to use one last year!
One day that thin brown wall will no longer have its East/West Berlin style Charlie Checkpoints and instead have simple Charlie Cards with a song as catchy as the "M.T.A.". Maybe there is already a good mariachi song for that? Or Texan cowboy lament?

Walls

2008-08-04T18:05:00.007-07:00

Alice said the ground where she was this past weekend was 128F. Ouch! Why would any creature want to go there? Just "Mad dogs and Englishmen", said Alice. She took a photo for me. A thin brown wall, canals, huge fields with alfalfa, carrots on one side, smaller fields on the south. The smaller fields get less water than the ones on the north side of the wall. Alice said one day the people on the south side will start thinking Nanking. Unequal treaties. Mr. Diaz and his money in exile in Paris, France.
She was thinking about another wall - which did no good in the long run but become a tourist attraction long after people decided it was a waste of time to maintain it... She pointed an umbrella up to a tower where she walked on a misty and smoggy day. She only went up as far as the cloud floor.
Months beforehand, when the sky was clear on a cold Winter day, some other people had fun there singing.
Alice and I can't see people wanting to travel half way around the world to sing at the thin brown wall. If only 100's of mariachi bands could play at once, like Jericho's horn, that wall might come tumbling down. Yes, that is what I will dream about for that place.

More trips....

2008-07-31T13:24:00.002-07:00

I really don't know why Alice leaves me, her special treasure, so often this Summer. Why is that? She says it's to a very hot place where I would burn my paws. Sounds like no fun. Better to stay here.
Meanwhile, everyone in the family here, house guests too, have been reading Cecilia Chiang's "The Seventh Daughter". Alice remembers meeting Mrs. Chiang back in the 1960's and 1970's at the Mandarin Restaurant. Alice says it was something special. Like going to a private elegant home. Perfect food. Nothing compares. Now, she says, she knows why having read that book.
All I know is everytime Alice read about Peking Duck in that book I salivated and I noticed Alice cried while reading about what happened to Mrs. Chiang's family in Beijing in the Cultural Revolution. Alice always knew Mrs. Chiang was a tough lady, but until reading the book, she had no idea how tough she really was and is. A real treasure, Mrs. Chiang is.

More Precious Jewels

2008-07-28T18:20:00.005-07:00

All over Asia.... jewels. The Three Supreme Jewels on the flag of the Tibetan government in exile. Held high by snow lions, reminding all of the Buddha, Dharma and Sangha.
In Japan, a Nyoi Hoju, the wish-fullfilling jewel, often is portrayed with mice. Alice is not sure why...
Some Chinese dragons hold tight to pearls, the Flaming Pearls of All Knowledge variety.
I hope a Chinese dragon never flies off with me in its claws! If so, I'll have to remember to say I'm "Pan Buo!" not a pearl.

My Chinese Seal

2008-07-28T17:16:00.005-07:00

Alice was thinking today about her Irish forbears while I was thought about my Tibetan relatives. Potato Famine. Shelling of Llasa. Irish Civil War. Chinese Cultural Revolution in Tibet. Unspeakable tragedies leaving deep scars.
I am glad my relatives were lucky and got out of Tibet. Alice, too, for those who got out of the Dingle Peninsula of Ireland. Our home is the United States now. We are Americans. But... as long as the Dalai Lama says Tibet can be part of China, like Ireland is part of the European Union, I guess that means I am also "from China" as Alice is "from Europe".
So, while in Beijing, Alice got me my own seal, or chop. "Pabu", is supposed to mean "Puffball" in Tibetan, but doesn't mean much in Chinese, so Alice asked Lisa Y. to find me a proper Chinese name. Lisa asked Alice all sorts of questions like my fur color and character. She suggested "Pan Buo" which means amber. "A precious jewel!" said Alice for her "precious one".
With the help of Jasmine, Alice found a good chop with a dog to make into my Chinese seal. And some amber colored seal ink.
Funny Chinese custom, those seals and ink. I've a much better personal way to mark things. More meaningful, too, for us dogs. Still, I try to understand and appreciate human customs.

I Go Flying

2008-07-21T01:01:00.003-07:00

Alice says she has to fly somewhere this week. Very fast, she says. I can fly, too! Here I am zipping over the grass by Dan Sullivan. Playing tag and tug of war with Alice over a Greennie. I hope she flies very fast back to me. She says she's not going as far as China this time. Good.

The Uber Qilin of the Wiki

2008-07-17T17:55:00.004-07:00

The first time Alice researched qilins on the Wikipedia, this one popped up on page one. At the Summer Palace of NW Beijing. Here she is giving it a respectfull hello surrounded by other admirers.
Would you want to be a metal statue stuck in one place - during the day - motionless while thousands ogled you? I know I would not. At least this one is the most famous - a consolation for it I suppose.
Behind that one and through a gateway, is this white one on a plinth, rather more discrete. A slower life. Fewer admirers. Maybe a bit easier to stay in Zen-zone there?
Alice looked at the lake this second qilin can smell. She thought it would be a good place for a curling bonspiel if the 100-only curlers in China could be encouraged to get out of their Olympics-only mindset and think of the real spirit of curling which includes bonspiels and long talks at bars after games.
Must send the Summer Palace qilins some ESP to tell any Chinese curlers they see to think: Bonspiel on the Summer Palace Lake!!!

Treats

2008-07-15T20:21:00.004-07:00

Pika came to California for a visit with her people. Here we are tonight getting some chicken treats. Nothing is better for snacks than fresh cooked chicken...except maybe beef filet followed by sun spots?
Alice told me about the ice mountains she shared in Beijing with new friends Pat, Kristen, Jasmine, and Suzy. They ate together three whole ice mountains covered in sweet beans. What, no chicken? No beef? Count me out. But, on a hot day, I know I would like some of the shaved ice part with that condensed milk - but I would lick around the beans. The people could make tunnels through the beans for me. That would be lots of fun.

Qilins Brought Alice Back!

2008-07-09T16:38:00.003-07:00

Alice is back. Hooray. I told all the qilins where she would be and they brought her back to me. The last ones were disguised as stone at an airport fountain near Beijing. Isn't their disguise effective? Alice had a lot of adventures, so many she says she might have to guest blog here.

Back To Office of the Red Chair

2008-06-22T23:37:00.003-07:00

Well, Alice is off to who-knows-where while I go to the Office of the Red Chair. Lucy's Keith gave me lots of attention tonight - and beef kabob bits!! - and back scratches. Here he is near one the of Red Chairs showing Care pix of the K-kids of Singapore. Those kids were always very nice to me. We all liked to spread out on the lawns and watch the world go by. (And I have to admit, I miss the older K-kid's choo-choo train runs on the sidewalk. Those were fun to watch.)

The Mayor of The Willows

2008-06-22T13:49:00.005-07:00

At the local school "dog services" today, I met my first ever Tibetan Mastiff. BIG!!! His nickname is "The Mayor of the Willows". He is quite dignified. I was not scared of him at all. Went right up, asked permission and then went in for the sniff. In turn, he deigned to sniff me.
I think he noticed my tail has longer hair.... I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams my tail could be more impressive than a Tibetan Mastiffs!
Continued on a walk and had a nice nose-to-nose with Stella the Beagle. Her person, Jocelyn, and Alice talked about Shanghai. Jocelyn said her favorite things to do there was get up very early to watch and do tai chi with others along the river bank.. Sounds good to me! Early morning walks are wonderful.
Jocelyn also recommended visits to tea gardens. That sounds good - lots of bushes to sniff and the people sitting down for long times drinking tea and watching the world.
Alice says she is going to China for a short trip. I know she will miss me, but I have some consulations like getting walks with Dan and Cecil. And getting lots and lots of Greenies in this room with the animal carpet. That's the first photo Alice has ever taken with her phone camera. How about that! Maybe she'll send me some pix from China?

Shoupedy-Doop Park

2008-06-19T15:35:00.004-07:00

Introduced Patsy and Pelle to Shoup Park on a hot day this week. Lots of fun. Pelle gets lots and lots of attention from all the people there. Here he is macho-straining to sniff a Pomeranian who walked near us. The Pom had a clever Summer clip. Made him look like a very big eared Chihuahua. Neat-o, says Alice.

My Furry Relations

2008-06-16T14:20:00.003-07:00

Am I the only one to notice I look very much like the dogs on the Tibetan flag? Been seeing lots of Tibetan flags around town. Many wonder if they will see them at the Olympics this Summer.
I think the Olympics are totally discriminatory. No dogs can compete! Not a single dog walking competition. No watch dog event. Not even a search dog event!!! Honestly - what is better for Planet Earth: dog walking or Greco-Roman wrestling? I *hate* watching anyone wrestle, especially dogs when one dominates pinning another over and over again (shudder). There is a bully-dog at the nearest park to my house. I've seen him do that to other dogs. Not nice. Not nice at all.
Horses can compete at the Olympics. Horses have better friends at the Olympics than do we dogs. Here's an interesting link to a lady who is a "junior" wife to someone who supports her horse activities. She rode in the Sydney Olympics and then qualified for the Athens' one... but... very strange, got married instead and no more riding at the Olympics for her. She'll be in Hong Kong at the Olympics supporting horses and their riders at the Hong Kong Jockey Club venue. She's still riding, but seems to do more "endurance" riding than the Olympics three-day eventing.
We dogs need a person like that to get us into the Olympics. But, Alice says, please no "junior" wife deals. Ick, she says.

Strawberry Season

2008-06-16T14:18:00.003-07:00

Alice has been picking strawberries in our front yard a lot lately. I wanted a sniff. Got one. Don't understand why she likes them. No meaty smell at all!

Emily Draws my Portrait

2008-05-29T11:52:00.002-07:00

My neighbor, Emily, gave Alice a drawing of me this week. Emily wanted me to have it. Thank you, Emily!! Alice said she would post it on my blog so here it is. Notice how I am smiling in the portrait. That's because Emily always sees me on my walks when I am very happy.

Percy and Daisy's Place

2008-05-21T14:07:00.006-07:00

Percy and Daisy Morgan's Los Altos Hills house is for sale again. It's had an addition and some new paving for cars since Alice saw it last a couple of decades ago.
Three big dogs live there now and do a fine job as a welcoming committee to us dogs. Each one came to my car for a sniff and hello.
Alice reported back there are nice dog beds in the new kichen and attached family room. And, the big yellow labrador followed her around wanting to sniff "me" on her.
Her favorite room in the house is still the ballroom. Wouldn't it be fun to have a Scottish dance party or ball there, she said. She also liked very much an updated bathroom in the second floor bedroom closest to the ballroom which has a big old Victorian Gothic sideboard turned into a bathroom sink. Stark white walls and simple white marble shower bath. Really sets off the Victorian Gothic piece. Fits the house perfectly.
The original house was built in 1914/15 by Percy and Daisy Morgan. He was a son of Cosmo George Morgan, related to the famous J.P. Morgan it's said. Those were the days when the area was filled with big country houses for wealthy San Franciscans who wanted out of SF after the 1906 quake.
I wonder where those three welcoming dogs will live next? A bit of a concern that the father of the family who lives there now does not list the dogs as part of the family... Don't worry, Pabs. Those nice dog beds in the house show the people will take good care of the dogs.

The Qilins of Bryant Street

2008-05-12T13:46:00.004-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, Alice saw a house which has been protected by two qilins for decades. I just saw it from outside. I've walked by that house a few times before and always knew it had such powerful protectors.
Funny how most people think only of dragons and phoenixes when they think of special Chinese beasts.
Here is one of the qilins walking on water. They can do that and walk on grass, too, without bending a single blade. They will breathe fire at anyone who threatens those they protect.
These qilins are said to have come from Stanford University many years ago when Stanford was clearing out some treasures. I wonder who had them made and who brought them to my town? I like to think of them protecting Jane Stanford after she'd lost her husband and son. And, I'm sure they will continue to protect good people since that is their job.

The House of the Round Lawn

2008-05-09T16:17:00.006-07:00

I waited, waited and waited while Alice was off real estating and doing other "work" things. She said I would have liked very much one place she saw today. Here is its beautiful round lawn where dogs and people can soak up the Sun. Alice is on the steps to the long and cool porch where dogs and people can cool off.
And here are two very important rooms: the kitchen complete with nice food and a dining room with a lovely old window perfect for surveying one's domain.
In another room is a portrait of a lady. Don't you think she looks like the lady in the kitchen? If you ask her she might tell you the interesting story of where that portrait was discovered.
A special family will live there soon. I hope they have a dog.

I'm Nine Today

2008-05-07T13:57:00.004-07:00

Pika's person called me this morning to wish me Happy Birthday. Nine years so far for this life. I faced the Sun and stretched out. Hmmmm.
Alice let me walk almost anywhere and sniff anything in honor of the day. (But, let's face it, she does that almost everyday anyway.)
I suppose I like to enjoy the moment no matter what it is rather than meditate about "special days".
Care called, too. I know she is thinking I might like some chicken. But what I really want is the whole human family together or at least a whole day with Alice. A quiet day. Lots of sunsoaking time. Lots of naps. A little bit of action to keep the brain going. Maybe a bike ride. Just to enjoy being here.
I feel a deep nap coming on....

Lu, Dave, Bill, and ??

2008-05-01T18:01:00.007-07:00

I sat in the car while Alice went inside the Los Altos History Museum. I communed and dreamed about the tall-legged dog on the poster nearby. I got the distinct feeling that dog was the first dog for the marriage of Lu and Dave.
I've sniffed (and yes, peed) at the home near mine where that dog got to be a First Dog of a new family.
About the time the dog came to live with them, Lu and Dave had just moved West to California with a leave of absence for Dave for one year from a secure job at GE in Schenectedy, New York during the Depression. Their monthly budget for home rental was 50 cents. Scary times. Never sure if one would get enough kibble much less meat...
Dave had a college friend, Bill, who had even less money than Lu and Dave. Bill slept many nights in the unheated, detached garage complete with a big knothole in the woodwork. Burrrrr. It gets below freezing many nights a year in my neighborhood!
I know that dog worried about Bill on cold nights. Lu and Dave had each other to keep warm, but Bill had no one yet.
Lu was a whiz on bookeeping, typing, and even cooking electronic test equipment parts for Dave and Bill. Without Lu... many would have gone hungry...
During the day, she would set up the papers on the dining room table and the dog would wait patiently. At night, Lu and Dave would move the heavy table out of the way for a Murphy bed to sleep on. Not until Lu could record in her books a big sale to Walt Disney did they all stop worrying about paying their bills.
I know the name of that dog. Alice doesn't know yet. She simply is not proficient in dog ESP through the time shifts.

A Good Walk

2008-04-30T16:25:00.007-07:00

What makes for a "good" walk? Must be at least four blocks long. A sunny day. Meet and greet with friendly dogs. Lots of good smells. Alice letting me sniff to my heart's content more often than not. And, for Alice, some nice things to see and do, too.
Today, the midday walk was good. Six blocks long. A stop at a favorite bush at the artist's house. Alice likes the poppies there. Down the street, people talking about the house under construction. Cody, a construction worker's dog there, gave me some updates the dogs know but the people do not.
The Secret Mountain Lab's person was out with his Great Dane and Bulldog. When the Bulldog gets tired he rides in the sidecar. When it's hot, he sits there under a little red parasol.
A "photo op" for me by some California poppies.
Long talk for Alice with a neighbor about houses in the neighborhood and parenting skills. I stretched out on the hot pavement for a sunsoak. Then cooled off in the shade. Repeat.
Two little girls gave me nice pats by these roses. They were very gentle and soft spoken. My favorite types of humans.
A good walk.

Random Thoughts

2008-04-23T12:51:00.004-07:00

Last Saturday, I had long snoozes in sunspots while Alice got blown to bits in San Francisco. Gusts over 40 knots. Icy blasts. Lots of rescues by the Coast Guard of wet sailors under the Golden Gate Bridge. Perhaps one of these sailboats trying to beat out to the open ocean got swamped?
At a museum nearby, Alice tried to find a single thing I would have liked. The pork meatballs in the cafe are the winner. But, not a single dog is allowed there except for working "servce" dogs. Bummer.
As for "art", she thought this painting of a spaniel peeking out from under a tablecloth at some poultry and other nice things would fascinate me if any good smells were associated with that painting. No smells, so why bother? Sometimes I simply cannot understand people.

A Tibetan in England

2008-04-16T14:37:00.006-07:00

A photo of one of my relatives is for sale on EBay. Alice and I had a long look at it. We both thought it would have been hard for that one to keep his/her paws clean since it seems no one ever bothered to trim the long paw hairs there...
Makes us think about how in China - and Tibet, too - in olden days wearing ridiculously long sleeves by the humans was considered a way to show one did no manual work. One was not a peasant! One does no work in the fields!!
Well! I'd rather be a peasant with nice, clean, and neat "Italian shoe" paws than an aristocrat with a nutty costume forced to wait for someone to help me get clotted mud off the paws.
Or worse! Never to be allowed outside to sunbake on the dirt or grass! Egads!!! To be stuck always indoors or watched like a hawk outside. Never allowed to ivy dive. Lawn diving onto wonderful smells. No real natural pleasures.
I know what that sad little dog in the photo is thinking. How about a romp on real Earth in the sun?

Hanami at MemChu and a Firing Squad Line-up

2008-04-14T14:56:00.004-07:00

Karen came for a visit. Lots of long walks for me with her! She and Alice went to see a big flowering double cherry. Again, I do not see the point in that. Sniffing the trunk, yes. Peering at flowers, no.
I'm still not sure why people like flowers....
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Rockies, this group of central bankers and finance ministers lined up, "firing-squad" style as professional PR photogs dislike so, across the street from the Willard Hotel in Washington DC. They missed completely the Cherry Blossom Tea at the Willard earlier this month. Could have seen those fabulous displays of cherry blossoms, Alice says. Talk about lousy timing for a big meeting of their kith, kin, and ilk. They COULD have been in DC for the peak of the Cherry Blossom season. Walked around the blossoms. Sniffed the tree trunks. Meditated on the fleeting time of life as those blossoms remind one to do, says Alice.
But no. Instead they pulled out their dark suits and lined up as if ready for a funeral or a firing squad. One is out of the loop. He did not get the word: black suits only. No blue suits....
At least one had an iota of fahion sense in honor of the season. Naturally, 'twas a Frenchwoman, Christine.
I bet all of them who have dogs would have prefered to walk their dogs instead of posing for that picture. If not, they are simply not decent dog people.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking by it.

Monks, a Pug, the Presidio & a Slow Speed Chase

2008-04-12T13:09:00.009-07:00

On Wednesday earlier this week, I went over to the Office of the Red Chair while Alice walked across the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time in her life. A pug and a big tall dog walked, too. Monks led the march. Everything was very peaceful and beautiful, Alice said. The cops all looked supremely bored.
On 'tother side of town many people got all hot and bothered about a "torch". Alice decided to go cherry blossom viewing in the Presidio instead. Here are some blooming trees near the Yoda statue. Yoda was a kind of monk imagined by a Mr. Lucas. Alice liked to think what Yoda would have done had he been in San Francisco that day... For starters, he would have been marching on the bridge with the other monks. Approve of people yelling in the streets? No, approve he would not.
On her drive home, Alice listened to the CBS newsradio. Many reporters were trying to figure out where the torch with its "Olympic" fame was headed. Quite a lot of confusion. The reporters were out of breath from running. Some on bicycles. It popped up on Van Ness Avenue. Went north. With a WWII duck truck! Would it go on the Bay aboard the duck? It turned left along the Marina! Would it cross the Golden Gate?
Alice fervently hoped it would not. The bridge should be only for peacful things today she thought and some people were getting very "interesting" such as the ones who lay down on the street trying to stop the torch and who were "cleared off" by the cops in less than 30 seconds flat.
Alice got home and watched the unmarked torch-bus process to San Francisco Airport. A slow-speed-chase ala O.J. Simpson. (One can only imagine the new slow-speed chase costumes for this year's Bay to Breakers run... If people can dress up as Jeannies, they can dress up as torch runners, "protectors",cops and yelling protestors.)
A colleague of Alice's was at the send-off dinner for the torch at the airport as a former Olympian. She reports there was a nice spread of food at the United Airlines VIP lounge and that the blue and white torch "protectors" are actually very nice. They are under orders not to smile in public or interact with them. Sorta makes them look like thugs, Alice thinks. The sort who would never smile at a dog and ask to pat one. The SFPD cops on the bridge smiled a lot and chatted quietly amoung themselves.
I could not be more bored with this fiasco of silly humans following a torch. I was deep in dog ESP meditation with all the dogs of the world, the Dalai Lama, and even the spirit of Yoda, himself.
Some things matter. Some things simply do not.

Cats, Dogs, Hamburgers, and Flags

2008-04-09T01:32:00.008-07:00

Lots of real estating earlier "today". Alice was impressed by a cat door and a cat stairway at one property. A special cat lives there. Was luxuriating on its person's bed pillows while Alice took these pictures.
I was impressed by some flags at a house on the way to see another house where Alice had a hamburger and brought me half of a cut-up hamburger patter. It was tasty. Worth waiting in the car for that.
Most good things are worth waiting for. As that special cat knows, too.
I am wondering if the dog of that doghouse by the front gate of that big house with the hamburgers is a good waiter. I hope so.

Jiu Jin Shan -Old Golden Mountain

2008-04-07T12:23:00.006-07:00

My extended Tibetan family today is closely watching Old Golden Mountain, as the Chinese call my local big city, San Francisco. This morning, Alice and I awoke to the news radio reporting climbers on the Golden Gate Bridge. Traffic was at a standstill in many places. The winds were strong - and stronger where the climbers were. Very dangerous. The reporters said the climbers were expected to unfurl a banner about Tibet and the Beijing Olympics. Alice and I decided to take a walk to think about things while the climbers climbed higher.
I hoped they would have a Tibetan national flag since it has cartoons on it of two of my relatives. Maybe the symbols of the flag with the Team Tibet logo? And I also thought how many in cars - including dogs - might be annoyed by the traffic jam.
Alice thought about her great-great-great-great grandfather,John Hossack, who left the Scottish Highlands to find food and work in America after the English defeated his nation's army and decided the crofters and clansmen should be "cleared out" in favor of higher income and tax revenue produced by sheep and wool farmers. The Highland Clearances. The wearing of the tartan and the playing of the bagpipes was forbidden for a long time by those in power from London.
Alice thought about what her ancestor, John Hossack, would think about the Tibetans. She expects as a very active abolitionist who was arrested himself for helping a runaway slave, he would have marched for the Tibetans and helped pay any fines the climbers will be charged for harming the bridge and interferring with traffic on a highway. John said it all in Chicago about freedom from oppression in a speech he made before he was sentenced under the Fuguitive Slave Law in 1860,

"...Gladly would I lay in this prison if it would arouse the people of this state to control their own jails, sheriffs, and jailers, and decree an eternal divorce between them and the despotism that wields the General Government, that blights territories, and stalks over the free states, imprisoning whom it pleases, and where it pleases. Men of Cook county, if liberty is not a farce, I ask you to ponder these things."

She also thought about the other side of her family from southern Ireland who had to leave after the potato famine and much too much persecution of the Catholics. If you were Catholic you could not get a government job. The Irish were forbidden from wearing of the green and speaking their language by those in power from London.
Well. The Irish did not give up. Lots of violence and struggle. Hunger strikes by prisoners in the 1970's.... But they finally joined the European Union. A new rule of law for all. The first Celtic Tiger economically. A roaring success.
The Scots got their own Parliament back again just a few years ago. And the Scottish Crown was delivered back to them by the English royal family. It took a long time....
And now, all over the world, the Scottish and the Irish cultures thrive thanks to their painful disporas.
The Tibetans have had a dispora, too. In their old capitol today, no one can get a government job without speaking Chinese well and denouncing their religious leader.
How long until those in power in Beijing realize the Tibetans need not be feared as those in power in London for hundreds of years feared and oppressed the Irish and the Scots? I hope the answer will be nonviolent as the Dalai Lama has preached for decades.
Erin go deo.
Scotland Forever!
Om mani padme hum.

Hanami at Scampi's Home

2008-04-06T13:13:00.006-07:00

Last week during a break between business meetings, Alice and Pika's person went to Marjorie and Scampi's home for some hanami. What is "hanami"? Cherry blossom viewing of course! Here is Pika's person under an old cherry tree.
Marjorie was a lady who loved flowers and especially Washington DC. She would have driven around the Tidal Basin to see the famous Japanese flowering cherries. And she planted many herself at her house in the woods nearby.
Scampi was her very last dog. A Schnauser. He had a special bed in her library and he rests now with the other long gone pets of Marjorie's family in wooded pet cemetary.
Here is Pika's person looking at each of their names carved in black stone beside's Marjorie's Dacha cottage.
Marjorie was an active supporter of many "causes". She was famous for supporting the American Red Cross, helping to get the Washington DC ballet a proper home, and I've no doubt with her four Cold War bomb shelters at her Rock Creek house she had plenty of kibble for Scampi and any other dogs for disasters. She was an uber-prepared person, Alice says.
And, Alice is sure Marjorie and Scampi, Coco, and all her other dogs did plenty of hanami in Washington DC each Spring.

Brave Hannah, Max and Wuzzy!!

2008-04-06T12:35:00.003-07:00

Yesterday morning, Alice went to the church where Penny's people were married for a Red Cross shelter exercise. More than a hundred people came for three hours along with three very brave dogs: Hannah, Max and Wuzzy. The people set up cots, put makeup on people to simulate bad injuries from an earthquake which real docters and nurses from DMAT-6 had to triage, and all the people got cheese and P&J sandwiches.
The dogs had to make do with water.
But, they had many people taking care of them as if this was a real shelter for pets and people. Here is Hannah with her Bonnie and a Red Cross animal control volunteer, Ariel. If it had been a real disaster or a longer exercise, there would have been a volunteer from the Humane Society to help with all the animals. With treats, food, and pet bedding, too. And walks.
One of the DMAT-6 doctors told a story about his scariest experience last year at the QualCom Stadium shelter for the San Diego fires. There he was, walking in a parking lot talking to his wife on his cell phone, happily eating an apple.... with a loose Shetland pony in pursuit of that apple. Guess who won?
Anyway, I hope all reading this have disaster plans to ensure their human and animal families will be taken care of during any disaster. Alice makes sure we have lots of extra kibble and Greenies on hand and hopes we never have to be evacuated from home. It's tough to be evacuated even for an exercise. It's very scary, says Hannah, until the people you trust tell you everything will be OK.