I’ve got a new surrogate mum! Her name’s Shirley. She has three little dogs I love to play with and she absolutely adores me. She snuck me treats that she said were from my Mum and Dad and she called me her sweet golden baby girl. I heard her telling them on the phone that she would adopt me in a heartbeat. If she did I hope she would take me on adventures like they do.
See Mum and Dad and I went on vacation to my favorite place ever, except for maybe the beach: Colorado! It’s got creeks and rivers and mountains. It’s even got grass. I can roll around in it all day, race around the woods sniffing things until I get hot, then jump in the creek. It’s perfect.
Of course it took about a hundred years to get there in the car. We camped, which is one of the funnest things to do, way up in the aspens, with snow in sight. When we got to the campground one of my best people was there, Uncle Rob. I was so surprised. He took me for walks and I got to play with Wolf, the dog that used to have Rob until she went to live with the angel dogs. She’s around Rob a lot.
The next day Mum and Dad and I got back in the car and drove to a strange house with grass in the backyard. That’s where Shirley lives. And my new friends. We all got along great. We played and dozed, and Shirley took all four of us for long walks every day. I missed my Mum and Dad, who were at some music thing that doesn’t include dogs, which is pretty pathetic, but I was well taken care of for four days. I hope I get to see Shirley and my pals again sometime.
When Mum and Dad picked me up I raced and raced and scooted under Mum’s legs to get to Dad, and then under his legs to escape into the front yard and run all around the block. I was so excited to see them. We spent the next two days playing in all the creeks we could find and camping in the woods next to a big river. I would get so tired I would ask to go to bed inside the tent before it even got dark. I can sprawl across practically the whole tent every night just like I do on the bed at home. Mum and Dad try to move me so they can have some room, but I know how to be like a thousand pound sack of flour. You can try to move me if you want.
I got lots of sticky and prickly stuff in my fur from thrashing around in the woods. I couldn’t even lick it clean. Mum had to cut some fur off. It was worth it to chase after squirrels and chipmunks, which I hardly ever see at home.
(This is a special tent Mum made me by the creek to keep the sun off me so I could snooze).
Eventually I remembered no one was really guarding the house properly while we were off having fun. We left it with my friend Serena. She’s sweet and gets down on the floor with me and makes me feel all melty inside, but she just doesn’t bark at passing coyotes and javelinas like a real security professional.
So I had to come home.
