Gracie Checks In
May 5, 2009
I’m not good at telling time but I think I’ve been at my new house for about 18 months or so. Sharon, my foster mom, has officially adopted me so now I’m a permanent part of the family.
I have the coolest canine brother ever; a pit bull mix named Petey. My mom adopted Petey during one of her trips to the New Orleans area doing animal rescue after Hurricane Katrina. Because of some weird Louisiana law, she didn’t want to talk about him too much for three years after she brought him home in December 2005. Anyway, now she can tell the world about him and I can tell you how much fun he and I have together.
See, I LOVE other dogs and Petey has turned out to be my new BFF. We run around the backyard chasing each other and playing tackle. Sometimes I get to roll Petey and other times he gets to roll me. We get kinda dirty doing this but that’s OK because we get regular baths to make us all clean again. I really don’t like baths but it does make me smell better.
Anyway, Petey and I have destroyed the lattice work under mom’s deck because it got in the way of our game of “catch me if you can”. Now that it’s gone it is so much easier to run circles under the deck. If the weather is nice we’ll play outside for a long time. Then we curl up together and take a nap… my favorite thing.
Last May I got to attend RAL’s Woofstock fundraiser that was at some place called Innsbrook. It was hot that day…..I mean really hot. Part of the day was set aside for a dog walk around the park. One of RAL’s teenage volunteers wanted to walk me so Mom said it was OK. I got about half way around the park and decided it was entirely too hot to walk any more. (After all I’m used to being inside since I left Bad Newz Kennels, so 97 degree weather is just not for me.) So when I’d had enough I dug in my paws and refused to move. The volunteer had her cell phone and called her father who was waiting for us at the finish line. She told him I refused to move. Several minutes later Mom and a couple of other people showed up; loaded me in a golf cart and drove me to the finish line. You gotta admit I know how to get my way.
Around my house I’ve become the official “ear cleaner”. Dog ears or cat ears….doesn’t matter to me. If ears need cleaning, or even if they don’t, I’m on it. The other dogs think it’s great but the cats ….well, they’re cats. What more can I say?
You may remember that I’m not keen about sitting on command. That hasn’t changed much even though I’ve been tempted by puppy treats, hamburgers and even fillet mignon. I do it when it suits me and Mom says that’s OK because other than that I pretty much do as she asks.
You may be interested to know about Alf, my former kennel buddy. Alf is living in Oklahoma with a pit bull rehabber friend of Mom’s. He’s doing great and has developed special friendships with horses….of all things. He’s well on his way to becoming a certified therapy dog…..good for him! They tell me that some people have taken to calling him the “Alfinator”. I miss Alf but I know he’s in good hands and besides…I’ve got a bunch of feline and canine buddies to keep me company at my house.
Well, that’s about it for now. There’s not much more to tell except that I spend my days doing dog stuff and hanging out on the couch (The federal authorities still refer to me as a “couch potato”.)
I’m going to be at RAL’s Woofstock again this year. Please stop by and see me. (They learned from last year so this year I get my own tent and they probably won’t ask me to do the dog walk thing.)
Love, Gracie
