Dining Al Fresco

Finally I got to ride in the car with a destination somewhere other than the Vet! Ummmmm..... the problem is that I’m not all that sure I like to ride in the car at all. I know I’m supposed to just positively love it since I’m a dog, but frankly it makes me a little nervous and I pant in an anxious way. I do like that I can sit on The Lady’s lap, but I’m really not all that fond of looking out the window and watching everything go by so fast like Space Mountain. My People keep talking about all the places we are going to go in the car, and I’m not sure how I feel about that yet. I think I'd prefer an RV but I’ll let you know. Something called a Boat keeps working it's way into the conversation too. What is a boat?

Today, we went to Newport Beach to visit Grandpa and his girlfriend Jo, and then we went to Auntie Cynthia’s house in Laguna Beach. Jo had a bad stroke and has to stay in bed all day and all night so I climbed up on top of her and gave her lots of kisses and wallowed around on her body. I peed a little bit on her blanket, but not much. She said she didn’t care because she was so happy to meet me. Visiting makes me awfully tired so I rested my eyes for a few minutes with my chin on Grandpa’ s feet. (He wasn't in bed. He was in a chair.) He is very nice and thinks I’m cute, you can just tell. On the way out the door, I snitched a fake mouse that belongs to Jo’s cat. (It sounds like everyone is calling the cat Menu. How very curious! Can you believe the cat is named for edibles? I will take note of this for future visits when the cat isn't sequestered in the laundry facility) Nothing against Menu of course, I just liked the little mouse and wanted to take it home with me. I didn't think anyone noticed and I thought I could get away with it, but The Lady pried my mouth open at the door and pulled it out. Soon my jaws will be strong enough that I will get to keep what I find, but for now The Lady has no problem sticking her entire fist down into my gullet to fish out my souvenirs. I mean, it's not like I have a backpack or a shopping bag. Where else am I supposed to put my belongings? Grandpa thought my attempt at thievery was hilarious and talked about it for weeks. (I'm not certain how he and the cat feel about each other.) I’m glad I could make him happy. It started to rain, so we decided to go visit Auntie Cynthia before it got much worse.

Since Auntie Cynthia has such an exciting energy and her switch is always turned up to eleven, The Lady made her meet us outside in the rain first to try and prevent me from peeing gallons on her floor. (Not very many people can make Auntie Cynthia do anything, but The Lady can because she is her little sister.) Even so, since she just a a b’zillion dollar remodel job performed on her beach house, I wasn't allowed to set my paws on the floor inside and was carried straight out to her little yard. When I’m older I’ll be able to run around free, but I’m still too young. There is a slight overhand on her patio so we all squeezed under it to stay out of the cold and rain. Everyone had lunch and I ate out of my new travel bowl that I got for Christmas. They had delicious turkey sandwiches and I had dry dogfood. After dining al fresco, I ran around in the rain and showed off all the commands I know so far and licked Cynthia's face like crazy. She tastes very good and squeals and wiggles in the most appealing way. The Lady called her in advance and reminded her to wear clothes that she doesn’t like anymore, and to put her hair up and remove all her tantalizing jewelry. Even i think that was a good idea since it was quite muddy in her garden and she was positively encrusted with dirty paw prints when it was time to say goodbye. I slept all the way home on The Lady’s lap. You know, I’d been so good all day, just the perfect dog, that I went a little nuts when I got home. I peed a little on the floor in The Boy’s room (for only the second time, ever) and then got rough when My People were playing with me. My baby teeth are tiny but sarrated, so when I bit The Lady’s I guess I made her bleed. I guess it would have been a perfect day except for that. I try, but sometimes I just can’t help it, especially when I am tired and cranky.