Hello everyone!  It’s me, Makena, and I’m back after resting up for a few months!  For those new to the blog, I’m a soon-to-be 11-year-old Jack Russell Terrier that likes to post the views of the traveling dog.

 

 

Before we left Florida, I did get a few days to visit my buddy (in his mind), Mr. Finn.  My parents went with their friends Tom and Ellen to watch a St. Patrick’s Day parade in Winter Park. Ellen, Mr. Finn’s mom, made him wear some crazy clothes and took him along to the parade.  I heard that he was quite popular, and many people stopped to take his picture.  Hmmm….I guess I wouldn’t mind all that attention from humans.  But my head is too small for that big green hat he was wearing!

 

Mr. Finn went to watch his big sister Annabelle dance after the parade.  She does Irish dancing, and her school, Watters School of Irish Dancing, put on a free performance after the parade.  My parents said they really enjoyed the performance, but my mom has no coordination to dance like Annabelle.  Annabelle is the shorter girl in front, and her proud grandma, Ellen, is the lady wearing the shamrock headpiece in the front row!

After that, we packed up our house, and I spent the next several days in travel mode, riding in my crate in the back seat of the truck.  There’s nothing better than finding new places to pee!  I like leaving my mark all over the country. I was getting a bit confused with my schedule during this traveling time.  My mom is normally up at 6am, and takes me out to go to the bathroom.  As with humans, you get used to doing your business at a certain time, if you know what I mean.  And I always have my canned food dinner at 5:00 pm!  But while we were traveling, my mom kept telling me we are now on Central Time, and I had to wait.  I didn’t understand, and just as I adjusted to the new time schedule my mom started feeding me early again.  Apparently we switched to Daylight Savings Time?  I just don’t get these humans and their time changes.  When my belly alarm goes off, I need food.  Not a difficult concept for us dogs.

We arrived in Texas and I was excited to see my Aunt LuAnn, Uncle John and cousin Alicia.  But then I discovered those “other cousins,” the four-legged kind.  They gave me a big “Texas welcome,” which I was less than enthused about.

 

Toffee decided to sniff my head, and Karamel got the other end.  Then they switched positions.  I think my mom needs to stop using the lavender-scented shampoo.  After that greeting, I discovered two more cousins waiting to greet me, Athena and Artemous.

After that traumatic episode, my parents took me outside, without a leash (yay!) since they have a fenced in backyard.  It was then that I discovered even more cousins (must be a Texas thing), but they were chickens!  Hmmm, I like chickens, but they wouldn’t let me in the pen meet them.  I just had to watch from a distance.

Needless to say, I was quite exhausted by all this activity, and decided it would be best to hide under my aunt and uncle’s bed.  I felt this would make a good “safe zone” away from those big poodles.  Unfortunately, the cat’s also use this area for their safe zone as well.  They were not amused that I was in their space, and promptly cornered me.  My parents were unaware of this cat bullying, until they kept calling my name, and wondered why I was not responding.  Then they found me and rescued me. Whew!

I slept well that first night back in the RV!

The next day we went back to visit, and I was not prepared to discover that I had even MORE cousins!  Yes, they adopted another standard poodle, Café Noir, who is eight weeks old.  My parents found her adorable, me, not so much.

 

Apparently the big dogs have taught the little dogs how to butt sniff.  I’m doing my best to keep it away from all of them.

 

 

My parents did bring my crate along, so I would not infringe upon the cat’s safe place.  Unfortunately, my new cousin hasn’t learned her boundaries yet, and tried to sneak in with me.  Now I know how the cats felt when I invaded their safe zone.

And if that new dog wasn’t enough, they also had a guinea pig too.  It stays at school in LuAnn’s classroom, but she brought it home for spring break, so it would ‘stay alive.’  Again, I was not allowed in this cage.  I think I would have liked this cousin.  It would be too small to reach my butt to sniff!

Since my parents have been out playing tourist, I have spent several days inside my crate at my cousins.  I don’t get to sleep as much as I would like because I need to keep an eye out for my cousins.

I think I tweaked my back in Florida, and was not feeling well.  Even though I don’t like being locked up in my crate all day, I have started to feel better.  Hopefully I can continue to get stronger, as I really miss playing with my football.  Oh, the good old days…sigh.

Well thanks for following along with me on my adventures.  I’m sure my mom will be back soon posting, as they have kept themselves busy in Dallas.  Take care!

Quote for the day:  “I wonder if other dogs think poodles are members of a weird religious cult.” – Rita Rudner