Summer Camp (by: Gerrit)

Geesh, I go to "summer camp" and while I'm gone Carlo totally hogs the blog and just writes about his fun times! He doesn't even write about ME! It sure is a good thing I'm back. I wouldn't want you all to forget about me and how cute and fun I am. Here are some photos of ME and the fun times I had while at "camp" (aka staying with another puppy raiser).

Here I am kayaking. I'm such the adventurer extraordinaire!

And, here I am swimming in the hopes of some day beating Michael Phelps. I betcha he can't swim and hold a ball in his mouth at the same time!

And, finally here I am being the poster child (errr... I mean dog) for the Fourth of July! I sure do look good in red, white, and blue. Dang, I make a good model!

While at "camp" I decided that if I don't make it as an assistance dog, I'm going to be an adventurer seeking Olympic swimmer model! But, my puppy raiser took one look at the photo of me on top of this blog entry and said she sees clown written all over my future!

P.S. All photos are courtesy of Rachel Rosenthal. Thanks for a great time at "summer camp"!

Hounds and Rebounds (by: Carlo)

Yesterday was Hounds and Rebounds night at the Monarchs Game. That means that since I'm a hound, I got to go on a special outing with my pal to watch a basketball game!!! We went with my hound buddy, Hope, and her person.

The fun started on the drive there. I kept floating some stinky biscuits. Every time it happened, my pal gasped and rolled down all the windows. She immediately blamed it on me. What's up with that?! It could have been Hope (or not... hee hee!).

Once we got to the arena, my pal made Hope and me pose for some obligatory photos. Ugh.

To be honest, the photo taking session wasn't all that bad. From where we were taking photos, there was a lot of interesting stuff going on. There were lots of dogs... all getting ready to watch the game. And, check this out... there was even a little tiny dog whose hair was painted purple (I'm not kidding!)! And, it was wearing a gold cape AND gold booties (again, I'm not kidding!)! I sure felt sorry for the little thing... but, the weird thing is that the dog didn't even seem to mind... it actually seemed proud of its funky get up.

We finally got into the arena and walked up a TON of stairs to get to our seats. All of us hounds and our peeps were in the nosebleed section. But, it wasn't all that bad. We could still could still see all the activity down on the court below. During halftime, we saw dogs playing some kind of game on the court where they raced each other over hurtles to get a ball. Those dogs were really fast... I didn't see why the dogs would be in such a rush to get a ball. I personally believe in the idea of taking your time. It ain't like the ball is going anywhere. But, the dogs racing each other were kinda ball crazy. There was one dog sitting behind us in the stands who got so excited with the halftime show, that it barked non-stop. Hope and I were trying to snooze, but that little dog kept going on and on and on. ANNOYING!

The drive back home was pretty uneventful. To be honest, I was pretty zonked. I was even too tired to float any more biscuits... that made my pal VERY happy.

4th of July Fun (by: Carlo)

Gerrit is staying at another puppy raiser's house right now cause we were supposed to go on a road trip for the 4th of July and my pal only wanted to take two dogs (and Lucky and I were the lucky two!). Unfortunately, the road trip plans fell through. BUT, this weekend still turned out to be a blast cause without Gerrit around, I finally got to go places for a change! 'Bout time!

Yesterday we drove to this place that had all kinds of 4th of July festivities going on! There was live music and food and firetrucks. There was even a parade with kids and dogs. We watched the parade for a bit and then joined in! It was such a fun outing!

At night, we all stayed in and didn't go out to watch fireworks. Lucky was kinda scared... [sidenote by Lucky: I was not scared!]. Errrr.... she was kinda... concerned... about the fireworks. And, she kept whining and panting and pacing all over the house. After we went to bed, she wouldn't even stay on her bed. So, what's a dog gonna do, but take the opportunity of her not being on her alpha bed? While she was pacing around, I quietly grabbed the alpha bed spot (which is on the side right next to my pal!).

The only problem was that not long after I had curled up in sleepy bliss, Lucky came back and practically sat on my head as she whined at my pal to get up and check out what was going on outside. My pal didn't go outside. Instead, she groggily told Lucky everything was ok and to go back to bed. But, then she saw that I was meekly laying on Lucky's bed and Lucky's fat butt was sitting on me... [sidenote by Lucky: My butt is not fat!]. So, my pal sighed, grabbed the other dog bed (my bed), which was at the foot of the bed and pulled it right next to the alpha bed. Lucky immediately jumped on it and and fell asleep.

The next morning, my pal looked over and noticed that Lucky was no longer on the dog bed, which she had moved the night before. She got out of her bed, looked around, and then noticed that Lucky was hiding under her bed... probably cause she was so scared the night before [sidenote by Lucky: Carlo, I'm warning you!]. Errrrrrrr.... so, my pal called Lucky to come out from under the bed. Lucky started crawling, but when she was only half way out, she stood up and got stuck cause her butt is kinda fat... [sidenote by Lucky: That's it Carlo! You are so going to get it!]. And, my pal had to rescue her and help her get unstuck. Ummmmm... I gotta run... hope you all had a happy 4th!