I'm going to try harder

It's so hard, with everything going on, to write in here on a regular basis. But it's good for me. Otherwise, how will I remember all these wonderful days?  They are pretty near to perfect. Take yesterday, for example.  First we walked to the boat ramp.  It drives me crazy to think about Ken with the Chuck-it and the ball hidden in his pocket and under his shirt.  I know it's there, I don't know why they think I'm fooled.  I do my best to pace myself to their abominably slow rate, but it's so hard.  My easy trot would be a breathless jog for them - and not to mention, Buzz.  For his age, Buzz does a great job of keeping up. Sometimes he falls back and lets K or J just kind of pull him along - he's told me that he could easily keep up but it's kind of nice to be pulled. They're onto his tricks these days, and usually make him stay in front. Ticks him off.  But he likes the boat ramp, too.

The ramp is about a mile and a half from the house.  One of the roads is pretty busy, and a little curvy, so we have to stay on the leash the whole way, even on the not-so-busy roads - because too many pickups pulling boats come zipping past us.  So yesterday we got there, I did some swimming, running, jumping, and general fetching. K and J got a bit ticked off at me for standing in the water and not bringing the ball.  I like to tease them now and then - I drop the ball in the water and then bat at it with my paws, "this close? you want me to bring the ball?  like about this close?" bat, bat. 

While I was fetching, Buzz got a little scrub in the lake (Jen took off her shoes and socks) because he was all muddy from when I bounced a big muddy ball off his back the day before.  He's still not completely clean, but washing him like that must have perked him up some, because he went a tiny bit crackerdog. 

Little did I know when we got back home, that Macy was coming over! I was sooo happy to see her.  She stayed pretty much the whole day.  We all had to spend a lot of time outside with K and J because they were trimming shrubs and carting wheelbarrows-full of trimmings to the back woods, and their philosophy is that we should be getting fresh air with them. I have no trouble with this but it bugs Buzz. He feels that if he wants to take a nap in his bed, no one should stop him.  He complains to me about it if I sit down next to him.  I got banished to the back yard from the front yard after I chased a butterfly across the street.  Oh I know I'm not supposed to leave the front yard. K and J are constantly saying "Stay here, Maxie. Stay home." and most of the time, truly, I do watch my impulses. But butterflies?? Squirrels?  Are you kidding me. 

K and J quit at about noon. Then Jen turned on the hose - oh, man, it is one of my favorite activities!!  It's like squirrels and butterflies all wrapped into one big old package.  I love attacking that water. Jen took a video yesterday. She says she got some good shots. Here's a still.

It's a pretty good indicator of how much fun I have doing that.  What I like is that they never spray me directly - I just get to attack.  Here's another one.

Check out the rooster tail.  Oh, yeah.  Only a dog that's MOVING is going to get the fur flying like that.  I have to say, though, that nothing makes me more tired - but I never want to stop. Oh, I love water.

More later.  The rest of the day was pretty calm. Us dogs took a nap and JK went for lunch, I guess they had a picnic somewhere (not fair, I would have loved that) and then Macy went home around 4 and we sat out on the porch until I barked at some noises and ran off the front lawn and got banished into the house. Sigh.  More later. I need to take a nap with my head on the air conditioning vent.