Date: Sun, 1 Aug 2004

Dearest Jo Anna & All The Wild Things,
Well it’s about time for another update.  I know that it’s been a little while since I sent one, but Big Dog and Lady Dog have been keeping me very busy lately.  I am now five months old, weigh 34 pounds (I know because Lady Dog keeps track of these things) and am losing my teeth left and right.  Lady Dog teases me by calling me names like “the toothless wonder”, but I know she loves me because she keeps giving me lots of chew toys, frozen strawberries and frozen broccoli stalks to help ease teething pains. 

Lady Dog says it’s been too hot lately to go out and bicycle or to rollerblade.  It actually got to 104º F. the other day.  We all just found a nice shady spot and didn’t move.  Lady Dog does make sure that I get my exercise everyday though.  She drags me out at 5:00 a.m. when it’s still cool and, depending on how awake she is, we walk one or two miles ever morning. 

We’ve also been playing with the garden hose and going down to the river a lot.  I’m not sure what these two-leggers think is so great about going down to the river, jumping into water that’s over your head, and “swimming”, but they insist on doing it.  As you can see from the attached picture, I gave it a try, but in all honesty I couldn’t get back to the shore fast enough.  I’ll take the garden hose over the river any day.  I didn’t like swimming, but the inner tube, now that’s another thing.  I have decided that by myself or with Big Dog, that’s the way to enjoy the river.
 

A couple of weeks ago, Lady Dog came home from work and was she ever happy.  She was all excited because Roseburg now has its very first Dog Park – Happy Tails.  So as usual when Lady Dog gets excited about something – off we went.  The first time we went there wasn’t anyone there.  We had the whole park to ourselves.  So Big Dog entertained me while Lady Dog went off and hid (there’s lots of trees and bushes in the Park) and I got to go and find her.  We had lots of fun.  The next time we went I got to meet Laredo and Hurley and some other little dogs that were out enjoying the day.  Hurley is a Siberian like me only he’s already grown up.  Laredo was a malamute mix and he was so BIGGGGGG that he was scary.  I decided to play with little dogs and leave the big boys to roughhouse without me until I’m a little older and bigger.

Well, she kept warning me and I didn’t believe her, but here I am going to school.  That’s right, Lady Dog has us going to obedience classes.  We’ve gone twice and even though I’m doing everything I’m supposed to, it doesn’t look like she’s going to change her mind any time soon.  Even though I have to sit, come, stay, and heel, it’s not all bad.  They have agility equipment at the class and I got to go over jumps, go on the dog walk and over the teeter totter, and through the tunnel (my personal favorite.)  I’ve even made lots of new four-legged friends. There’s Brittany the Dane, Bronx the Boxer, Socks the Corgi-mix, Sadie the border collie, a couple of shepherds, a jack-russell terrier, and there’s even another Zen whose the same age as I am, only he doesn’t look like me.  Big Dog and the Lady Dogs (mine and the other Zen’s) are making arrangements to meet at the Dog Park where we can run and play without disrupting the whole class. 

  Big Dog is on a big project at the moment.  But I do get lots of time to relax in my new “Cooleroo” hammock bed.  Boy it sure is comfortable on those hot days.  Hope all is well and that the Wild Things aren’t too much so.  I do think about home and the nice cool surroundings, especially when we get those HOT days here.  But the ice cubes never seem to run out.  Lucky for me.
Well I have to be going now.  I wish you and the “wild things” all the best.