HEY! THAT'S A GREAT IDEA!!!

M.O.M. and M.O.D. had a rummage sale one day and they caught a picture of Catsister sitting in the giveaway box. I guess it didn't work cause she is still here with us. I must admit that I am glad she is cause she and I have become pretty good friends.

M.O.M. has not been feeling well the last few days so I have no photos to post. I am spending most of my days lying beside her to try to comfort her as much as I can. We will post something soon. Thanks M.O.D. for helping me post!!

WAS I REALLY THAT LITTLE?

M.O.M. and M.O.D. were looking through some photos of me when they came across the first picture they had taken of me when we arrived home from the rescue center. I sure can't believe how much I have grown in the last year. But it sure has been a very happy, fun year for this little puppy!

A NOTE FROM M.O.M.

Our little Mistaya has such a wonderful attitude about life that I am trying to live my life like she does.
Every morning she awakens so excited to see another day. She climbs up on our bed and acts so amazed that we are still there in her life. She just can't seem to control her kisses and rolling around on the bed to try to get as close to us as possible and to show us how happy she is to find us there again.
Since she has come into our lives she has taught me how easy it is to start the day with a smile on my face,
To be so very grateful to awaken to another glorious day,
To have another day to do anything I wish with it,
To realize that each day is a clean slate and I need to fill it with joy.
She also seems to know that forgiving is one of the easiest things you can do as she acts like anything that happen yesterday didn't ever happen the moment her eyes open to a new day.
And she always has so much love to share.
I have no doubt that dogs really do come into this world with pure hearts and filled with love. We are so thankful that this gentle little creature chose us to live with. She fills our hearts with joy and love every day.
We love you Princess Mistaya, M.O.M.

FUN ON MY PUPPY WALKS

As you can see from the following pictures, every time I think I hear a big monster moving in the ditch at the side of the road I try with all my mite to surprise him by jumping on him.

But most of the time I just end up with my body completely hidden out of site with nothing down there to capture. But it's the thrill of "the hunt" that keeps me going.

Of course, M.O.M. is always concerned that I will impale myself on something in the ditch but I am afraid I never worry about that. My ears are so fine tuned that I seem to be able to hear the tiniest creature sneaking through the grass. So of course I must try my best to conquer this wild beast!

MONDAY IMAGE

A NOTE FROM M.O.M.

DEAR DOGS, CATS & VISITORS:

Dear Dogs and Cats:
The dishes with the paw prints are yours and contain your food. The other dishes are mine and contain my food. Placing a paw print in the middle of my plate and food does not stake a claim for it becoming your food and dish, nor do I find that aesthetically pleasing in the slightest.

The stairway was not designed by NASCAR and is not a racetrack. Racing me to the bottom is not the object. Tripping me doesn't help because I fall faster than you can run.

I cannot buy anything bigger than a king sized bed. I am very sorry about this.. Do not think I will continue sleeping on the couch to ensure your comfort, however. Dogs and cats can actually curl up in a ball when they sleep. It is not necessary to sleep perpendicular to each other, stretched out to the fullest extent possible. I also know that sticking tails straight out and having tongues hanging out on the other end to maximize space is nothing but sarcasm.

For the last time, there is no secret exit from the bathroom! If, by some miracle, I beat you there and manage to get the door shut, it is not necessary to claw, whine, meow, try to turn the knob or get your paw under the edge in an attempt to open the door. I must exit through the same door I entered. Also, I have been using the bathroom for years - canine/feline attendance is not required.

The proper order for kissing is: Kiss me first, then go smell the other dog or cat's butt. I cannot stress this enough.

Finally, in fairness, dear pets, I have posted the following message on the front door:

VISITORS:

TO ALL NON-PET OWNERS WHO VISIT AND LIKE TO COMPLAIN ABOUT OUR PETS:
1) They live here. You don't.

2) If you don't want their hair on your clothes, stay off the furniture.

That's why they call it 'fur'-niture.

(3) I like my pets a lot better than I like most people.

(4) To you, they are animals. To me, they are adopted sons/daughters who are short, hairy, walk on all fours and don't speak clearly.

Remember, dogs and cats are better than kids because they:
(1) eat less
(2) don't ask for money all the time
(3) are easier to train
(4) normally come when called
(5) never ask to drive the car
(6) don't hang out with drug-using people
(7) don't smoke or drink
(8) don't want to wear your clothes
(9) don't have to buy the latest fashions
(10) don't need a gazillion dollars for college and
(11) if they get pregnant, you can sell their children....

M.O.M. RECEIVED THIS IN A EMAIL TODAY AND WHEN I HEARD HER AND M.O.D. LAUGHING A LOT I SUSPECTED THAT IT WOULD SHOW UP ON MY BLOG. APPARENTLY THEY CLAIM IT FITS OUR ANIMAL HOUSE TOO!

PUPPY TALK

Oh, I think I know that puppies and dogs all go to Heaven. M.O.M. has said that us puppies all have pure hearts so I am sure we will all be heaven one day.

THE DOG DAYS OF SUMMER ARE BACK

M.O.M. and I went on a speed walk this morning but the temperature went up real fast before we made it back home. There was a moment that I did get in front of M.O.M. and thought about stopping her...that is how I alerted her that I was totally exhausted last weekend. But after a few steps at her pace I realized she had slowed her pace too so I just walked quietly beside her until we were back home to my very cool and comfortable green grass. Of course because I wasn't running everywhere M.O.M. suspected that I was a bit over heated but she did not say anything about it. Thank's M.O.M.

I AM NOT AS SMART AS I THOUGHT I WAS

M.O.M. let me go with her on her speed walk late this morning and I didn't realize how hot it had gotten since earlier this morning.

Before I realized how fast I had been running and how many logs and things I had been jumping over I had run pretty hard and fast. So when I got back to the road where M.O.M. was walking I found the closest shade--and it happened to be in the road in front of M.O.M.-- and I laid down and looked up a her to try to tell her that I just couldn't go any further.

I was so hot and tired that I could hardly breathe so M.O.M. knelt down in front of me and offered me some water out of my water bottle that she always carries for me. When she saw that I would not drink any water she immediately got out her cell phone and called M.O.D. I heard her ask him to get in his truck and come right away because I was not able to get up on my feet because I was just to hot.

It was just a few short minutes when I heard his truck coming down the road. M.O.M. asked him to please take me home and I willingly climbed into the truck and sat beside him for the short ride home.

M.O.D. put me in the coolest spot in the back yard and offered me some ice cubes that were just what I needed to cool me off. After a few minutes I began to feel better so he gave me a treat and asked me to stay in the cool shade for a bit longer. So I spent some time napping here and when I awoke I felt so much better.

Being a puppy I imagine that I really won't learn much from this experience because I love so much to run fast whenever I can. But I can say for sure that I know M.O.M. will not let me run as much or as far from now on until the cool air of Autumn is here. I guess that will be alright.

WE SPENT THE AFTERNOON AT THE RIVER!

I had such a wonderful afternoon at the Bitter Root River not far from our house today. M.O.D. and M.O.M. let me run in the water and it felt so cool and tasted even better.

There were also several areas where there was loads of soft wonderful sand that I could run real fast in. It sure felt good between my toes.

There were also places where there were billions of rocks but I really didn't let that slow me down. It was still fun to run real fast across this smooth round rocks.

Of course, as usual, this awesome fun always seems to end to soon. But I have grown up enough to realize that M.O.M. and M.O.D. frequently try to take me to fun places so I can run free like the wind. Gosh, now that I think about it, I really can run pretty fast because of all the practice I have had during all of our great adventures together. I sure have adopted a wonderful family.

I'VE BEEN TAGGED!! BY MISS CINDI LOU WHO

MISS CINDI LOU WHO has tagged me and for that I say thank you Miss Cindi! Apparently I am suppose to list 6 things that make me happy.. Well, this was a difficult task for me. Since I am a rescued puppy most everything in my life now makes me very happy.
#1... This may be one of the best things on my "HAPPY LIST" even though for some reason all this fluffy cold white stuff slowly disappeared from my yard. I have yet to figure out what happened...did M.O.M. and M.O.D. take it all away? and will it ever return? I loved running through this stuff with my nose close to the ground pushing the cold stuff out of my way. I sure miss it.

#2....Happiness is sharing fresh peas from M.O.D.'s vegetable bed this summer. I learned very quickly when he handed me a pea pod just how to get to the yummy little peas inside. We spent several afternoon at the pea patch eating peas together.

#3...I love playing tag with M.O.M. on a cool summer afternoon. I learned real fast how to stop, spin around and run the opposite direction before she could catch me. That's fun.

#4... One of my really fun tricks is to wait until M.O.M. is almost finished making the bed each morning then run in and jump up on the bed and nestle deep down into the pillows. Well, it's really fun until she catches me!!! But the best part about her finding me is she then climbs on the bed with me and we get to snuggle for awhile. Gosh, Love is fun too!

#5... and of course it's so much fun to climb up on the picnic table to take a short nap and still be able to keep an eye on every thing in my world.

#6...It's always fun to find a new place to take my important naps during the day. And what could possibly be more fun than to take a nap on a very comfortable chaise lounge?

THIS PUP CAN OUT RUN THE WIND!

I did enjoy camping with M.O.D. and M.O.M. but I must confess that one of my very favorite things to do at home is go on speed walks with M.O.M. every day. You know I love to go on hikes with her too because in the wilderness I can find really big boulders to climb up on so I can see my whole world.

Well, I have discovered that I can do that here near home on our daily speed walks! This big pile of cut trees is very near the road but I can see forever up here.

And this mound of dirt that has been used as a ramp to load horses into a big truck also comes in very handy to see the world from.

So when I can see everywhere then I just start running as fast as I can............

and I do run to no where in particular....I just love to run and leap over anything that is in front of me...I feel like I could fly!!!!!!!

TROUBLE ON MY PUPPY WALK!

M.O.M. and M.O.D. went on a walk with me today and as we were strolling along...me running along as usual, we all stopped to see where that terrible noise was coming from. It did sound like a sick animal to me!
But I was very disappointed to look back down the road and here comes Catsister..ON MY WALK!!!!! I was not happy as she continued to make that terrible noise and she kept following us down MY road!

So I finally took matters into my own hands......I mean my own paws.....and started to chase her back down the road towards home so I could continue on my private journey.

But both M.O.M. and M.O.D. told me to leave Catsister alone and let her come with us if she wished. And darn it! she walked the whole way with us. Geez.

MY LAST DAY OF CAMPING

By Sunday I was a very tired camping puppy. I found M.O.M.'s chair by the fire and curled up in it to take a wonderful nap.

After we had all our camping gear packed away in our truck I went to check if I needed to chase any mean blue birds away from our campsite before we left. But it seems they all learned to stay away so I could leave the campground knowing I had done my job very well on my first camping trip. I sure hope we can go out into the woods and spend the night a lot more...I had a wonderful time!!

WE HAD VISITORS AT OUR CAMPSITE

After M.O.M. and I had camp set up we noticed that we had some visitors to my food bowl. They didn't seem to be very shy. M.O.M. approached them with some treats in her outstretched hand and they flew right to her and landed on her arm and started eating the treats!

I wasn't sure just what to do about this but M.O.M. was speaking softly to them so I decided they must be friendly. And she did tell me that I must not chase these gentle birds. I wasn't happy that they were eating my food but M.O.M. did bring enough to make sure I did not go hungry.

But this bird was a different story. It is a Stiller Jay and he constantly chased away the friendly birds whenever they came to visit. So M.O.M. didn't stop me from chasing him away from my food bowl. It you click on the photo you can see the blue colored robber making his escape in the middle of the tree just ahead of me as I raced after him. He did keep me busy for quite awhile that first afternoon.

But I did win!

MY FIRST PUPPY CAMPING TRIP

This is the area we camped in on our great adventure this last weekend. If you look real close you can see ME in the middle of the picture checking to make sure M.O.M. brought all of my food supply. Okay, it's all there, that's good. (you can click on the picture for a very close up look of me!)

Of course I spent the first hour or so checking out all of my new surroundings. Gosh, there were lot's of places to explore so I kept busy for a very long time.

We were camped in a fairly secluded campsite away from everyone so I didn't have to wear my leash or be tied up hardly at all....only when M.O.M. and I walked to the restroom or through the campground to go for a walk or a hike. And when we were far enough away from everyone M.O.M. always took off my leash. So that was okay.

We were close to a beautiful stream that M.O.M. let me play in often. I remember being at this same stream a few months ago and the water was way above where I am running and M.O.M. would not let me get very close...I had to stay up on the bank which is now way up above me!

M.O.D. had to work the first day we were here so he dropped us off very early in the morning and M.O.M. and I spent some of the morning setting up the tent and getting things organized so everything would be ready when M.O.D. returned after work later that afternoon. Of course I still had plenty to time to chase lot's of squirrels away from my camping area. Whew, I was very busy!!

There will be more camping adventure stories and photos tomorrow!