My friends

I feel much, much better.  Buzz is taking a nap and I don't want to wake him up just to post a few pictures.   I'll write more about Buzz. He says no old man should have to put up with a whippersnapper (whatever that is) for a companion, but then he plays tug of war with me or tells me to listen for JK calling us, or the garage door going up if they have been gone; and I know he doesn't really mind that much. He says he's deaf, but how can he hear that lid come off the biscuit jar or the spoon clink on his bowl when JK stirs his food? I don't really get it.

Buzz and I have so many friends.  I would have more, but some dogs are just grouchy. The other day on our way back from the lake, we talked to a man whose dog looked a tiny bit like me.  He (the dog) was rude.  The man said his name was Big Head Angus.  He did have a big head and he growled at us.  Take out the "G" and we could have come up with a sorta bad word for his nickname but JK would have frowned at that.  We have to be polite even when other owners let their dogs get growly.  If he feels like the other dog is paying too much attention to me, Buzz still tries now and then to do that ridiculous mounting thing, I just get like, 'what?!' and walk away. You should have seen him with a Great Dane we once met, named Patches.  I don't even want to think about how embarassing that was.  Oh, I could write a book about Buzz and his stories. 
Well so anyway, here are our friends!!

This is Macy. She's one of my best friends. And Buzz's, but he gets bored with both of us pretty quickly.  Here she's visiting Buzz in his bed.  He doesn't mind.  She comes to visit now and then; and we meet her and Ruth on walks. Macy is a bit of a princess, the good kind, the kind with jewels on her collar, that rolls in dead fish and knows how to play in the dirt and the shallow part of the lake.  She's killed more snakes than I have (that would be zero). Buzz says that in his heyday he killed a lot of moles, and then sometimes he and Macy compare JRT killer stories and I try to tell them about the bird shadow I chased away and they kind of stare at me.

Here's Hank, with Macy, and Ruth's girl Maddie, in the lake. Hank is Betty's dog.  If I see them from far away, it's all I can do not to cramp up from wagging.  Betty is the only person who seems to understand how much I hate the "Gentle Leader" (a story for another blog).  So when we meet up with them, I always spend a few seconds rubbing my nose in the grass so she will say, "He's saying, 'get that thing off me!'"  I never do it otherwise, no one else has any sympathy. Hank is very dignified and I'm kind of in awe of him.  He gets to stand in the middle of the road while our people talk, and his leash is a mile long. 

Here's Hank, Buzz, me, and Macy at Buzz's and my birthday party last October, when Buzz turned 14 and I turned 1. We had milkbone sundaes at the boat ramp. It was the best party ever.

Buzz and I met a lot of friends last summer, too, when we drove out to Montana with J. What a trip that was.  I had a blast but Buzz said he didn't care if Montana was the land of his birth, he is a southern dog now and the cold air in the mountain cabin made his bones ache. Plus he hated the hikes.  I'll have to tell you about that sometime.

Here are the friends we met on that trip:

This is Oliver. He lives on a farm in Nebraska with the Clark clan. I've seen crows bigger than this dog. I actually didn't know he was a dog, at first. No offense. I am literally ten times heavier than he is. As you can tell from the picture, he has some serious attitude, lots of swagger and P and V, cocky little banty rooster K9.  My favorite part was when I'd chase the ball, and he'd chase me.  I'd love to see him again.

Here's Oliver again, with his companion Mae, and Buzz and me. Mae is pretty nice, but she doesn't suffer fools gladly. I'm not sure what's going on in this picture, but I think what it was, was, Oliver and Mae didn't like the stench of travel on Buzz and me. (I can't help it that I dived into that treatment pond by that gas station in Missouri). Us four had a great time hanging out at the Clark pond. 

In Nebraska, too, we met Pip. Her people are related to J. So are Oliver and Mae's.  And Pip is related to Mae somehow, too, I don't know all the ins and outs but I think they're sisters.  I wish I knew my sisters.

This is Pip, at the cabin, with her people, who are very nice.  Pip is kind of like Buzz, not the run around and play type, but she's easy to get along with and I like hanging out with her. 

 
Radar lives in Billing, Montana.  Oh, Buzz and I loved this little guy. He was just a pup.  He and I had a great time playing tug of war. I'll see if I can find a picture.  Yeah here we are.  I could swing him around in the air and he wouldn't let go.

Well, I have more friends for you to meet - Izzy, Tucker, Jake, and then some I hope to meet someday, Penny, Annabelle, Sophie, Lexi, Godiva...and then some I don't have pictures of yet - Zach and Fonzie - but I have a lot on my schedule today so I better get going.  First up...I need a nap. Maybe I'm not quite back up to par.