A Rose By Any Other Name

I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I am a connoisseur of fine smells. I love to use my nose to discover the world around me. Here's a good shot of my beak...

And another close-up of my smell-sniffer...

One good whiff through the air vent in the pickup can tell me all about the countryside we're driving through. I can tell you if there are there other dogs nearby, or cows and horses, what's cooking outside on the grill for supper, and where there's a super odiferous pile of goop to roll in. The nose knows, you know.

So imagine my surprise when Mom started coming home with a new smell on her. I couldn't quite figure it out, never having come across the likes of it in my whole seven years. It always seems to be situated on her shoulder, sometimes on her arm and once in her hair. I puzzled over this for awhile until I hit on a way of finding out. I asked Cap. You know Cap, he's older than dirt and seen it all. And he told me the answer.

"It's baby burp, pup. Haven't you ever smelled burp before, young whippersnapper?" Well, nooooo, if I had I wouldn't have asked. I haven't officially been introduced to Little Guy yet. Mom says grandbabies are not squeaky toys and she won't let us play together until Little Guy is old enough not to get knocked over. So I'll just have to settle for whiffs of milky baby's breath until we actually meet. That and pictures, which Mom seems to have an abundance of cute ones to share. He does actually look a little like my yellow rubber ducky, doesn't he?

~Tell

I Regret Nothing

As most of you know, I love to dig. It's good exercise, it aerates the dirt, and improves the general landscape of the yard. It's one of my favorite pastimes. Cap says I will dig a hole to China. Someday I will test that theory. I just enjoy the smell of dirt and feel of it under my toes.

Today I was digging over by the edge of the yard, and I must say I had quite an impressive trench going. Suddenly, my head popped up on the other side of the fence. It only took a second for me to realize I had engineered my own escape tunnel, and I was good to go. With a wiggle and a twist, I was outa there!

First I checked out the barn for vermin. Apparently the cats keep the mice away, so I treed all the cats. I then inspected the chicken pen. Good sturdy fence there, so no fox in the henhouse on my watch. Leo and Cedric were too busy munching grass to play, so I moved on from the goats' area. I patrolled the entire farm, which drove Glynn bonkers. She wanted to come with me so much, but all she and Cap could do was watch from the yard.

As I checked out the lower meadow, I found the most wonderful, intoxicating and rancid thing to roll in. I'm telling ya, this was really ripe! I spent some quality time roaching it in real good. Then I went to the creek for a drink and had fun bobbing for fish. I returned to the smelly spot to roll some more in case I had washed some eau de rotten off while I was wading in the water. I marked the spot in case I want to visit it again.

Finally, I heard a pickup in the driveway. It was Mom coming home from work. When she saw me, she stopped, honked the horn and opened the door. Well, you don't have to invite me twice to go riding in the pickup. I hopped right up into her lap and gave her a big nuzzle hello.

Oh-wet-stinky-dog-rotten-bad-gag-gag-gag...I heard all the way to the house. At least Glynn appreciated my new smell. Cap just muttered something about young whippersnappers and shook his head. Mom hooked one finger in my collar and crab-walked me at arm's length straight to the bathtub. What? Another bath so soon? But it's not Saturday yet...

Oh well, it was totally worth it!

~Tell