All Washed Up

I'm baaaa-aaaack!

Older for sure. Washed up? Let's be reasonable here.

I AM a 3 yr. old Chocolate lab, after all.

The only thing that coulda made last week's birthday any better woulda been for a couple of groundhogs to show up at my party. None did but that's OK 'cuz I was a very busy dawg. Now, don't get me wrong, I woulda been a gracious host and taken the time to mingle with 'em but there will be time enough for that another day.

Right now we want to thank everybody who played along and tried to find answers to the contest questions. Congratulations go to the OP Pack for bein' the first to get them all right. The answers were:

Daisy and Ben were my biological Mom and Dad's name.

Mom went for an extended swim in Lake Marberg.

Number of groundhog platters served by me to date have been 63.

GREAT job OP Pack! They requested that their donation go to The Last Resort Animal Rescue and Sanctuary in New Jersey. I am so glad we were able to help out this hard-workin' safe haven for animals in need.

Of course my day at the Canine Spa ROCKED in a big way. Here's two short videos just to give you an idea why I was a very mellow fellow the days followin' my birthday bash.

I'm tellin' ya-it felt MAH-VELOUS! Most of the time me and Mom had the place to ourselves which was pretty cool. A twelve year old Golden Retriever did show up but Mom thought it best that I take a break from swimmin' so we took a walk outside. That gave the senior Golden Girl a chance to swim by herself and she wouldn't have to endure my playful, yet hard advances. By the time the shampoo came out I had no nuthin' left in me to fight the shower hose.

This is what I looked like the next two days or so. Clean, but tired.

I also had another sweet surprise happen recently. Oz Girl from Kansas had a contest goin' on that you could win your choice of one of her calendars. She lives in a beautiful part of our country and takes some magnificent pictures. Her store on Zazzle is called Wheatgrass Designs and it features calendars, greetin' cards, mouse pads etc. She also lives with a Chocolate dawg named Ringo and he has a calendar of just pictures of him each month. All that to say, I WON and Oz Girl gave me my calendar choice. I'm sure they are all spectacular but I really wanted to be seein' Ringo's face all year long so that's the one I chose. Check out her blog, you may be wantin' one of her calendars for your very own.

Now it's back to my job of supervisin' Mom as she works around the house. Believe me, it's a tough job and not as easy as it looks.

You may think I'm bein' too rough on her but it's really all her fault. She's not always an easy 2 legger to please either, ya know. Just take for instance, the laundry. A little while back I thought I'd try and help out with it. I jumped in and started takin' it downstairs and sortin' it for her. I just assumed because she had an easy access hamper that she was in agreement with my efforts. (If you decide to biggify this picture you will see a Chocolate stain on the fabric where my neck rubbed as I observed the dirty clothes level each day. I finally realized that access was much easier from the side so it also shows some Chocolate residue plus a minor tear in the fabric. Ooops-my bad.)

So what if I did decide to do this at 3:00 in the morning? Mom thinks that I was whinin' because I wanted her to chase me. Does she not realize I can't open the washer lid by myself? The pains that I was goin' to just to help went unappreciated to say the least. But I did not give up. Night after night I tried to do my share. A surprise awaited me as I strolled into the bathroom one afternoon to see just how long my laundry shift would be that night.

That's when I realized the PU's were serious about closin' down my late night laundry service.

My efforts of helpin' 'round the house have been hampered once again.

I guess I'll just forget about workin' and learn to enjoy bein' a kept dog.

A short week is in store and the grocery list

is growin' for our Thanksgivin' feast.

I'm thankful simply for the fact that I am blessed enough to say that.

Happy Thanksgivin'!!!

Chester ;0=)