Drying Off And Cooling Down

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  After we have our post-walk pool party, Mom says it's important for us to dry off before we go inside for the ultimate cool down.  Usually, we've gotten most of the lower deck wet, so I come up here to the landing to get dry:

"Yep!  Almost dry, Mom!"

After that, she does a little towel action on us, then we're all set to go inside where it's nice and cool.

Oh.  Maggie?  Well, yes.  We all know Maggie has her own way of doing things, right?  Here she is:

"What?"

Well, she was off the wet deck!  (Can you see my reflection in the upper right corner?)

Stay cool, everyone!

Cammie!

Pool Party!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags!  As I showed you yesterday, we have a GREAT, new way to cool off here at Ao4 Headquarters - a POOL!

It's not real big or anything, but it's plenty big enough to splash around in after a walk/trot with Mom!  AND there's plenty of room for everyone!  Look:

"Umm..."
"Oh, yeah.  This is totally cool!"

See? It's like ... it's like having a BOX, with this cool water in it!  Yeah!  A box that Cam will actually ---

"I'm out."
"Get back IN here, Cam!"

OK.  Note to self:  Don't refer to the pool as a "box" around Cammie.

"Hey.  Where'd everybody go?  I'm just kidding.  It's not a box."

Mom asked if we'd like some of our toys in the pool ...

"Toys would be a good idea."
"Nah.  My favorite toy just jumped back in!  Ha roo roo roo!!!"

She put my KONG Traxx and my cool KONG thing that looks like a spaceship in the water.

"The tire sank but the spaceship is floating!"
"That's because it's a spaceship!!!"

She had a good point there.

Apparently, Mom gets hot on our walks, too.  I tried cooling her off by standing right beside her and doing the shakey-shakey-shake.  She thanked me, so I'm sure she appreciated it.  It wasn't enough, though, so she joined us in our pool for a while!

"Go, Mom!"

Mom loves the look on Cammie's face in that shot.  She wanted me to point that out to everyone.

Anyway, Mom empties our pool after each use, so we don't attract mosquitoes and other undesirable things.  She uses that water to water her plants.  We also like to move it around on the deck, so we can have sun or shade - depending on how hot it is!  Over here on this side, there's more sun and lots of room to run around!

I like for Mom to throw my tire in the pool, then I rescue it, then give it to her - then we start it all over again.  It's sort of like Fetch, only with water.

"I've got it, Mom!"

While Mom is busy throwing the toy, Cammie stands by as my lifeguard!

"How 'bout more throwing and less pictures?"
"Can I have a whistle to wear around my neck?"

Unlike many pools, we have no rules against running!  In fact, it's encouraged!

Cammie doesn't like to play the water version of Fetch, but she did want a turn in the pool (something about "adult swim time"?), so I got out and served as her lifeguard, like she did for me!

"No worries, Mom; I'm on it!"
"You should make Maggie wear those sunglasses out here!"

When I thought Cam had enough time in the pool ...

"Uff!"
"Time's up!"

"Urggg..."
"Ev'rybody out of the pool!!!"

Oh.  Yeah.  Well, I thought she was drowning or something since she didn't get out right away; I felt it was my duty as lifeguard to pull her to safety.

"Sigh.  Do all of you see what I have to put up with around here?"
"Maybe if I grab a back leg ..."

Yeah, Cam acts all grown up and stuff, but she likes splashing around every bit as much as I do!

Who wants to come to our pool party!?!  You're all welcome to join us!  (We just have to dry off before we're allowed back in the house!)

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday (We're Sure This Time)

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  Sorry for the mix-up on yesterday's post.  Mom has had "Day Of The Week Confusion" for a few days now.  We think it's finally been sorted out.  She even got us confused!  We put our post up as Serene Scenery Sunday until a FaceBook friend of Mom's pointed out that it was actually Saturday!  Oops.  Anyway, today is Sunday!  We have something new that we do after our morning walks now that makes us feel super serene, so we thought we'd post it for you today.  Because TODAY is Serene Scenery Sunday.  Right, Mom?

Tomorrow, we'll show you how this came to be, but for now, how about we just launch into a video?!?

If the video won't play, please click here to watch on YouTube!

If that doesn't make you feel cool and serene, I'm not sure what will!

Have a great Sunday - and stay cool!

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Serene Scenery Sunday. Or Saturday.

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  I'm doing something a little different this week, I'm sharing photos and a video from our walk yesterday.  (Of course, it's also a little different because today is SATURDAY, Mom!!!)  (Sorry.  My fault.  KZK)  Maggie, Mom, and I just had the best time, and felt totally wonderful afterwards, so I thought I could spread the joy to all of you!

Here is a shot of me and Mags, heading out:

"Let's be really good today!"
"Ha.  We're always good!"

Well, yes, she had a point there.  But we didn't try to snarf down any bugs or grass or anything (for the most part), we didn't pull (I never do), and (for the first two miles) we didn't play crazed river otter games!

By the time we got to the Hudson Trail, we were all three having such a delightful walk, that Mom said we could go left -- the long way!

"Ooooh, it's all shady down here!"
"And the rain-soaked trail feels nice on my feety-feet!"

It was lovely!  We saw lots of birdies and pretty wildflowers.  We had a lady behind us, so Mom didn't want to dilly-dally too much to take photos.  (You can't really go around people on that part of the trail.)  The cool thing was at the end of Hudson Trail, Mom pulled us aside so the lady could get around us -- and instead of that, she came over to meet us!  She was super nice and we both liked her an awful lot.  And it wasn't just because she smelled like her Newfoundland who was chilling out at home.  Seriously.  She was nice.

We took a detour we don't usually take ...

"This is so fun!"
"And look at how well-behaved we are!"

... then found ourselves at the top of my favorite hill!

"I love going up this hill!"
"Mom likes going DOWN your favorite hill!"

In fact, Mom took a video of us -- a short one, because ... well ...

If that doesn't play for some reason, please click here to view it on YouTube.

It couldn't last forever, could it?  Yes, Mom knows how to read our expressions.  And yes, we were indeed about to start "horsing around".  If she can put an early halt to "someone's" shenanigans, before we launch into full-blown crazed river otter games, things stay relatively calm.  Serene, even.

I hope you enjoyed our wonderful walk!  Tomorrow, we'll show you what we did when we got home!

Have a great Sunday!  And Saturday.  :)  

Cammie!

Photo Finish Friday

Greetings to all!  It's me, Mags! Over here in the kitchen; I'm on KP duty.

Does anyone else need help with the dishes?

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Photographer

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie.  You all know me by now, I'm always looking for something new to try!  The other day, Mom and Dad were outside playing with their chainsaw again --- oh, no.  No, I didn't get to try that!  Anyway, I started looking around and saw that Mom left her iPhone in the house.  I thought I'd take some photos with it, so she could see what Cam and I were up to while they were out playing lumberjack!  She also left her sunglasses laying around, so I thought I'd throw them into the mix.

Check out my first "selfie":

"How do I look?"

Pretty cool, don't you think? A tad out of focus, though. It was hard to keep my paw steady, holding it out so far. Let's move in a little bit:

"Hey!"

Yeah! I like that one!

Oh.  I know what you're thinking!

"You want to see these glasses on Cam, don't you?"

Well, let's give that a go!  I'll put them on her and take a few snaps!

"Maggie!  What are you ..."

OK, a little too close!

"Seriously?"

Oh, yeah!  Cam looks awesome, doesn't she?

"Sigh.  Do you all see what I have to put up with around here?!?"

That was fun!  I think I have the makings of a pretty good photographer, don't you?

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Wordless Wednesday

Yours sincerely,
Margaret Thatcher

Sneaky Snake!!!

Greetings to all!  It's me, Maggie!  We've been having a string of very hot temperatures, as I mentioned the other day, so we've been getting our exercise in early in the day!  Our backyard is nice and shady in the morning, so it's still cool enough for us to play out there with Mom after our walk!  Things got pretty exciting over the weekend - it went something like this!

I was out exploring the yard when ...

"Hey!  Hey, Mom!  What's that behind you?!?"

I saw it, plain as day!  It was a Sneaky Snake!  And it went flying through the air!  It launched right over my head, so I ran after it, grabbed it, and went racing through the yard!

"I've got you, you Sneaky Snake you!!!"

I ran with it, and ran with it, and ran with it some more!

"Stop struggling, Sneaky Snake!"

When I was fairly certain I had it subdued, Mom said it was time to go in and get some water.  I thought I had taught the Sneaky Snake a lesson and left it laying on the deck.

I got a good drink, and was ready to start helping Mom around the house.  I followed her downstairs and was just poking around, when I saw something go soaring into the Library!  It was the Sneaky Snake!  It must have followed us inside somehow!

I ran into the Library and dove on it!  I grabbed it ...

Me, in the Library, with the Sneaky Snake

... and carried it upstairs, into the Living Room.

"Time to teach you a lesson, Sneaky Snake!"

I shook him and chewed him so hard he squeaked!  Then I started tossing him around - and he attacked Mom!!!

"Argh!  Help!  He's got me, Mags!  Help!"
"Oh, no, you DON'T, Sneaky Snake!  Let go of my mom!!!"

It took some doing, but I was able to save Mom!  She was really proud of me.  I went into the Kitchen to tell Cammie about everything - and the Sneaky Snake slipped out of my grasp and tried to go after her!!!

"Try it, Sneaky Snake, and I'll cover the floor with your fluffy snake guts!"

She was in conference with Big Mean Kitty; I think Sneaky Snake was afraid to take them both on, so he slithered off somewhere.  I'm not sure where - Mom offered us girls cookies and said playtime was over for a while.  

You heard that right - "playtime".  I save her from a Sneaky Snake attack and she calls it "playtime".  Sometimes I don't think Mom fully appreciates all the work I do around here!

Yours sincerely,

Margaret Thatcher

Hi, Dad!

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie!  Maggie and I took Mom on a really, really fun walk the other morning (except for the "it's stinkin' hot" part) and I thought I'd tell you about it today.  Get a drink of water and come walking with us, OK?

So ... Dad was out golfing, playing the course you can see from our deck here at home for a change, so it was just us girls.  The walk started out like most of our walks ...

"LOCUST!"
"Get it, Mags!"
"Margaret THATCHER!"

It would seem that when Maggie does something especially noteworthy, Mom uses her full name! She must have been proud of Maggie's ability to catch that locust -- they're fast bugs! Tasty, too. ...But I digress.

When we got to the crest of the first big hill ...

"Hey, let's turn left for a change!"
"Yeah, can we, please?  Mom?"

To our surprise, Mom gave us the green light to turn left on the road. It was awesome - there are huge hills that way and lots of new smells! We were nearing the vicinity of the Kansas Ocean, when Mom started staring out at the hills. She started saying, "I think ... maybe ... wait, what color shirt was he wearing?" Then she started flailing her arms all around and said we should go walk up one of the new roads they cut in. That sounded fun!

We got to the end of a cul-de-sac when I understood what Mom was talking about!

"Hey!  I see Dad out there!!!  Hi, Dad!!!"  

Mom and I saw him, but Maggie didn't!

"Maggie!  Look!  It's Dad!"
"Ha!  Like I'm going to fall for that one!"

I told Maggie to look for the golf cart, then ... see the sort of black spot to the left of it?  Dad was wearing a black shirt when he left in the morning!  I remember sharing some of my furs with him!  It was Dad!!!  Here, take a closer look:

Hi, Dad!

Then Mom's iPhone rang and it was Dad; she had it on speaker, so we could hear him!  Then Maggie said since it was Dad, we should put on a show for him and his golf buddies!!!

"Hey, Cam.  BOOM!"
"Ufff!"

Dad just delighted in our show!  I know that because he and Mom decided to hang up so they could totally enjoy watching us.  In fact, Mom suggested we take our show on the road.

Did you know it's hard to make forward progress and play crazed river otter games at the same time? Not impossible, but difficult.  We eventually decided just to walk.

Here's Maggie, crossing the Trans-oceanic bridge at the Kansas Ocean:

"Only snow could make this walk better!"

And here I am, checking the water level from the bridge:

"There's finally water under the bridge - so to speak!"

That's certainly one of the good things about all the rain we've had - the Kansas Ocean is standing tall once again!

"I sure hope Dad enjoyed our show!"
"I just know he did, Mags!"

What a fun, fun walk!  Thanks for coming with us - we hope you had as much fun as we did!

Everyone to the water bowls - drinks are on me!

Cammie!

Serene Scenery Sunday

Hello, everyone!  It's me, Cammie, here with Serene Scenery Sunday.  This week, Maggie and I thought we'd show you around our backyard a little bit.  There are some pretty flowers blooming and looking at those might help all of us feel nice and serene!

Let's go take a look around. Ready to kick off the tour, Mags?

Our Red Creeping Thyme has gotten really big this year and is currently covered in tiny pink flowers!  Here's Mag--...

"HEY!  What's this?!!?"

Umm... Maggie?

"No, wait!  There's something in here!"

It was just after Mags snoofed around the thyme a bit (looking for locusts) that Mom decided perhaps I should give the rest of the tour.

"Fine.  'Sit quietly under the maple tree.'  Fine."

Anyway, the thyme was fine after being stepped on - see?

"See, everyone (especially Mom)?  It's fine!"

Also in that photo, you can see our Becky Daisies:

Becky Daisy

And some of our Butterfly Weed:

Butterfly Weed - and a bee of some sort

The bees really like those flowers - but what they really love, especially the bumblebees, is our lavender!

"Mmm... lavender!"

It's doing really well this year - and that makes Mom feel very serene. Have you ever smelled fresh lavender? Mmm... so calming and lovely!

That's a wrap for now! I hope you enjoyed your garden tour.

"Thanks for coming, everyone!"

Have a serene Sunday!

Cammie!