The Crew boarding at our house this week, at the park and at home:

Tucker & Buddy, new best buds, playing in the yard at the Doodlebug Homestead…..

It was chilly when Emma, Myles and I left our building today but by the the time we picked everybody up  and got to the park the sun was WARM!!! That’s the best. The car ride was full of healthy snacks – carrot sticks to be exact. Emma was eating them and decided to share. Me and Jojo told her she couldn’t fool us – we knew that wasn’t an orange chicken stick – but the rest of them gobbled carrot bits hungrily and kept asking for more. Silly dogs. They kept up their healthy bent at the park at the end of our time when someone found a patch of new spring grass and told someone else and before she knew it Emma was riding herd to a crew of miniature ponies! Silly puppies… Molly, Weisz and Layla, The Three Musketeers, continued  their Tues/Thurs tradition of wreaking havoc and pummeling each other with love wrestles over and over again. Derby resisted the melee beautifully until we were just about to leave the park. Then she just couldn’t stand it any longer and jumped in to chase Molly. Derby has a thing for Molly but unfortunately Molly doesn’t always shine under Derby’s particular brand of rough and tough play. More times than not she goes sheepish and which makes Derby try harder which makes Emma call a time out. Molly did rise to the occasion for a couple minutes today which made Derby SO happy but there as no follow through. Poor Derby. Emma will call her out of it and she’ll resignedly resume her place at Emma’s side THEN Molly will come up and give her a playful side bump. Very confusing. When Weisz, Layla and Molly are in a game of tag nothing else exists. (Except the call to Treats!) They nearly knocked over 3 people today – oops… We feel a bit bad but still hold the position that it is a DOG park not a people park and therefore people should go elsewhere if they do not want to deal with dogs. The Lake was lovely today. Everybody went in at least up to their ankles. Except Myles – he stuck to toe deep. Weisz went in up to his chest which was the farthest Emma’d seen him go before. She’s wondering if he’ll swim come summer when she goes in the water too. He seems to like it just not need to prove anything. The hose on the other hand Weisz HATES. It is rare that he is dirty enough to warrant a spray down but let me tell you when those moments occur he protests as hard as he can. Sometimes I think he’d rather have us leave him at the park then get hosed off… Somehow he can tell the days when Emma plans on bathing him and he won’t get within 100 yards of her – sneaky boy! She has to get sneaky back and pretend to leave the park with him so he’s on leash then take him back in. It’s the one time he stops being hungry…treats mean nothing when the hose is involved. It always works out in the end and at least Weisz gets a few more good runs out of it. (From doggy perspective:) ) Layla swam in her superhero suit. Think that was the first time we’ve seen her actually swim all the way too. She was trying to live up to her suit and save a ball no one else seemed to be fetching. Emma had to strip off her outfit and make her run to warm up. I swam today too – there were these nice guys that both me and Sasha really took to that threw our balls for us and got us in the fetch groove. Jojo chaperoned us all as usual – running the borders of the pack and keeping them clear of riff raff. He is quite good at picking out dogs that think a bit too highly of themselves and letting them know that he’s special too and that they better stay clear of his puppies with that kind of attitude. Sasha did the cutest most out of character thing today  just as we were getting ready to leave – there was a broken frizbee that Emma had shown the pups because they (especially Layla) think that kind of thing is treasure but they’d grown tired of it quickly and who should pick it up but Sasha! She grabbed it in her mouth and started booking it around a tree. The pups stood there with their mouths hanging open for a split second (Sasha NEVER tries to play with them) then rose to the call to chase. Emma laughed and laughed. It was adorable to see Sasha racing about like a baby dog!

We are renaming the company. Doodlebug Dogs will now be known as Rapscallion Hooligans. The subtitle will be “A pack for the spunky & headstrong among us.” I know it’s been the full moon and there was that snow and then it was all warm today but I mean jeez! Emma and I are realizing that our cute puppy pack is now a wily gang of teenagers and man, they are something. While they still have their sweet moments of course and are never horrible horrible horrible, there’s definitely an thread of rebellion and ganging up in the air. Never a dull moment. Even the few of us older canines in the group can’t seem to hold ourselves away from the teenage banter. They’re seductive in their unruliness. Most of the time we’re just trying to referee and get them in line but somehow the puppies interpret it as egging them on. Yikes! Though half the time there are no pictures it’s because Emma has forgotten the camera, the other half of the time it’s because there’s not a moment of down time from facilitating the hooligans! Emma is contemplating brings steak chunks and not saying a word about it and seeing what happens then… All that being said, we all love each other SO MUCH. I don’t see any of the other packs at the park having so much fun or sharing so much love with one another on a daily basis. We’re like brothers and sisters, man. Tight. I think this group of dogs will remember each other for always no matter how long they walk together. Yesterday we had Sasha, Jojo, Weisz, Derby, Layla and Molly. Today we had Sasha, Lulu, Jasper, Jojo, Weisz, Layla and Anna. Yesterday all hell broke lose at the water and it was a quick stop for us. Today the water was a happy place and we hung out for a good long time. Jojo, Weisz, Layla, Lulu and Jasper did a bunch of wading. Sasha was on the money – swimming out to fetch 2 balls at once like her life depended on it. Anna did a bunch of swimming too, mostly while fetching the giant red cuz which Lulu or Layla or both would steal as soon as she got it on shore. There was much tug a war, as usual, between the youngins and quite a bit of top speed wrestling. Whoa upon the stranger dog who decided to get involved. There were a few puppies that joined in and were in heaven. But the others who fell into the game whether they meant to or not were looking for a way to make it end! We all made it out in one piece though and everyone’s legs should be very very very tired. Emma wishes she could enjoys everyone’s sleepiness and not just their coo-coos! Ah well, I’ll just have to be extra calm tonight to let her know it was a day’s work well done.