where was I?

Oh yeah. Vacation. That's what the folks said it was. I guess a vacation is when you go farther than the dog park for a really long time and every day you have to learn new smells and find good nap spots. Vacations are hard work.

But I got to do some really cool stuff. I got to play in snow on a mountain! No kidding. A mountain is like the dog park only up.



They wouldn't take the leash off, though. Boy, that would have been fun.

And there was no great lake where we went but there was an ocean! No kidding. At first I was only able to look at it



but pretty soon we went to walk in it. At first it was sort of scary because the water goes in and out like the great lake does, but this stuff goes waaaay in and waaaay out. It was hard to figure out.

I loved it. Some day they are gonna take that darn leash off and let me run around like at the dog park. That ocean would have been a great place to run! I don't get why they worry so much.

So, anyway, that was vacation. I think I like vacation. But I like home, too. Time to sleep in front of the fire again. Maybe I'll dream about swimming in oceans. No leash.

whew!

Boy, am I glad to be back. You can't believe what happened. I'm just doing my usual morning thing...chewing Dad's pillow, chasing Scooter under the bed, looking for Mom's shoes, trying to look sad so they'll take me to the dog park. Well, pretty soon I hear the "car" word and I am excited and we get out to the car but I can tell right away that something is up because the folks built like a whole room for me behind them. Really! Like my bed and a water bowl and toys and a chew stick and I'm thinking something is fishy here and I'm hoping it doesn't mean the cold table/pointy stick in the butt stuff.

But Dad drove right by the pointy stick place but then wait! he drove right by the dog park place, too so I tried the whimpering thing but they just told me to hush. We drove longer than it takes to go to Grammas, longer than it takes to go to the great lake for swimming, longer than any park I know. I started to worry they were taking me back to the shelter, but we drove and drove and I fell asleep.

I woke up in a place called Oh! Hi, O! We still didn't stop except for all of us to pee and get stuff like water and chips. They stuffed me back in my car room and off we went. This went on for days!!!

You can't believe the stuff I saw. Huge things called cows that didn't even look when I barked at them. And horses! Same thing. What's with these people? Then there was this huuuge green thing that I really went crazy trying to scare off but the folks just laughed. They said he was the Sinclair dinosaur, a gas station dummy. Yeah, he was a dummy all right. If I coulda got out of the car he would have been sorry. Hmph.

We stopped at places called hotels that are really just a whole lot of big bed rooms where you can't bark and all sorts of things happen at the door that make you want to bark but you get yelled at. I don't like hotels.

Finally we got to our new house in Oh, I'm gone! or something like that. But it really wasn't our new house because we left there to come back here after a while. That was lots nicer than the hotel. I'll tell you the rest later. I need a nap and the fireplace is on. I love sleeping by the fire. Except when my fur starts to smell funny and Mom pulls me away by my legs.

baloney

Do you know baloney? Get to know it, I mean it. Baloney doesn't happen much in our house because Dad is a veterinarian or something. But yesterday, Mom bought some and made lunch. She left it on the big kitchen working table, I guess because she was real hungry and didn't want to wait to eat lunch. I guess she was gonna put it in the big box I haven't figured out how to open when she was done.

I waited.

Pretty soon she brought her lunch in the big room and sat in a chair and watched TV and she left the baloney all alone. She didn't know I could reach the top of the working table. I've been practicing. But there was never anything there until yesterday. It wasn't easy. The baloney was in an envelope and you have to get it out. But I did it. And it was really really good. I was really excited and that's how I got caught. That envelope thing the baloney came in was really tasty. I took it and ran into the big room and jumped on the couch so I could take my time chewing it. That's when Mom yelled "QUINCY! The baloney!" (that's how I knew what it was called)

Mom sent me upstairs to sleep on the big bed which is something I like to do so I'm not sure if she was really mad or not. Except she sounded mad. I mean. at night she says "C'mon Q, let's go sleep on the big bed" in her good dog voice. This time she used her bad dog voice and said "QUINCY! Upstairs! Now! Get on the bed! Bad!"

Either way, I got a whole lot of baloney and a nap on the big bed. Life is good.

car zoomies

OK, this is cool. But it only works in the Mom car.

You put one paw on the dashboard ( I know that's what it's called because the mom says "Q! You're scratching the dashboard!), Then you put your other paw OUTSIDE the car and hang onto the mirror. You keep your back legs real straight on the seat and leeeeaaan your head waaay out the window.

When the car goes fast, you're doing the best zoomies ever.

Try it, really! It is great. Well, except if the car is going really fast and your ears start flappin' wompawompa. That gets weird.

new bark park!

The bark park is my favorite place, so when the folks said we were going to the new bark park I thought "OK, but you can't make me like it"

But I did.

When we got there, lots of new people were there and they didn't have dogs. They were sort of standing around and waiting. Turns out they were waiting for the guy in the suit. He's a mayor. I'm not sure what that is, but it got me a new bark park, so I'm thinking it's a good thing.



I tried to get in on it, but they fenced me out.



The new park is so big I can run forever



You can see the swimming lake, but there's a fence again.




Those are some of my friends.

Thanks for the park mayor man. My friends say thanks, too.




I think I'm gonna like it here

swimming!

OK, I didn't know what it was, but the folks were all excited to keep telling me we were going swimming! Swimming, swimming, swimming. OK, so let's go to swimming already. sheesh. This better be good.

We went to a place by the water. The bark park is by the water but this place had no fence. The water could come right at you. And it did. It would come at me, then back up and come at me and back up. Too weird for me.




I was real happy to just keep smelling that sleeping fish, but no, we had to chase the water. Mom went with me, that's the only reason I went. Had to protect her from the in and out water,



Hmm..OK...this is sorta cool, now what?



Ah, the old stick throw. They know I can't help myself



Hey. that's not so bad



And then Dad threw the stick really far and the water came up to my nose and so I picked up my legs and started running and Mom got all excited about how I was swimming! Yay Quincy! Yay Quincy! You're swimming!



I mean, really, have they never heard of "doggie paddle"?

I like this swimming thing



Mom said I was swimming in a great lake. Heck yeah, it was a really really great lake.

It would have been a perfect day if they had let me bring the sleeping fish home. He smelled really tasty. But I had to drop it.

We'll be back, though.

'cause I'm a swimmin' dog now!

I went to canada!

OK, I'm not exactly sure what a canada is, but we went there. Dad had to tell a man where he was born. Nobody asked me. I guess canada doesn't care about dogs.

It's funny, we go on really long car rides and nobody asks Dad where he was born. This canada place is just down the street near the bark park but they ask you questions. I have to figure it out.

I got to play with canada puppies. They didn't care where I was born, either.

Dear canada..My name is Quincy. I was born in a shelter. Thanks for letting me visit.