Great hike at Bronte tonight.

Sniffed, explored - and peed on - my world.

Life is good.

It's been a busy few days since I posted last.

Later that evening - I think it was Tuesday - Eli and Zac showed up at the den. About half an hour after that, there was a knock on the door. I was already ecstatic, and wondered, who else could be coming to visit the den?

OMG.

O.M.G.

It was ADAM!!!!! (and Nikki, who I also love).

My favourite human ever was there! I haven't seen him since Christmas. God, was I happy - it was difficult to fully express my joy. I pasted my ears to my head, wiggled every possible part of my body, brought gifts. Just so happy.

They all barbequed. I begged, got attention, you know, the usual.

The next day wasn't as fun. The human cut me while she was trimming my nails. I bled for about 45 minutes. Oblivious to this, I continued to move freely around the house, on the beige carpets. She finally managed to stop me and forced me to lie down while holding pressure on my nail and expressing a good deal of regret and guilt. I did my best to show her that I really didn't hold it against her.

Once I stopped bleeding, we met Cosie and Diane at Bronte and hiked a new area. Plenty of new smells to investigate with my BFF.

I was a bit sore and slow yesterday - not sure if it's my nail or arthritis. The weather has been rainy, so it could be my bones.

My human has not had a good sleep the past few nights. Her fault.

She caved last week and let me sleep on the bed with her one night.

As if I'd forget that.

Now, every night, I sit by the edge of the bed and cry. When she eventually wakens and opens her eyes to see my giant ears facing her, peeking over the top of the bed, she knows what she's done. She pats my bed, says "Boo boo, come over here".

I ignore her and continue my bedside vigil.

It's not until she actually gets out of bed and comes over to lead me to my own bed that I give in.

Haven't decided how many nights I'll continue my vigil yet.

I love peanut butter mornings.

Today I got to lick the almost-empty peanut butter jar while the human made her cafe mocha.

Next, I had my usual little smudge of peanut butter on her breakfast plate once she was finished.

Somehow, I can't help but think that is a very good way to start the day.

Hot days are not my thing.

Neither are hot nights.

I prefer spring, fall, winter to summer. My coat is beyond thick and black. Go outside in a black outfit and coat on a hot day, and you'll begin to get a sense of why I dislike hot sunny days.

Yesterday was one of those days. The human let me have an early morning swim on our 5:30 am walk. Sleep was hard to come by last night, even with the air conditioner on. I panted so hard.

Ugh.

I had a party yesterday!

Diane and Cosmos showed up at our house to go for a walk late yesterday afternoon. I was totally beside myself with happiness. We headed out for a walk along the lake, and guess who we met on our way?

Riley! And Gary!

We all walked together. Sniffed stuff together, peed on things together. My human was going to let me have a swim because it was hot. Usually Riley doesn't come down to the lake, but he did yesterday. He was funny - he wasn't really too sure what to do at the water. I ran straight in, bit the water, rolled around, swam, shook. Riley kind of tested things out on the shore, played with algae and rocks and eventually came into the water a bit. Cosmos got her paws wet, I think - that is usually the extent of her involvement with water. We all romped and played in our own way down there. Riley dug up a big rock, and carried it up to the grass in his mouth.

He is SUCH a man. Ahhhhhhhh.

We continued along, two of us wet, one nice and clean and dry.

Usually we split up by Riley's house. He goes home, we continue along the sidewalk to our house.

Yesterday, though, this did not happen. He came with us.

All the way into my yard!

I couldn't believe it! Riley came to my house!

Riley, Cosie and I wandered around, checked out toys and bones, had a drink and generally had a good time.

Riley made up a game. My human put a big bowl of water in the yard for him (since Gary was in the yard, Riley was in the yard - he never strays far from his dad, so, the water had to come to him).

He self-played with his tennis ball back there, eventually coming up with this game where he would drop the ball into his water dish, fish it out, carry it across the patio, drop it, chase it while it rolled, catch it, and take it back to drop into the water bowl. Then he'd do it again.

He appeared to enjoy this game.

Wtf?

I don't get it.

But, whatever, I was still just glad he and Cosie were over hanging at my place.

My peeps.

I was a bad girl yesterday. I had a good time being a bad girl.

My misbehaviour began at the QEW and Northshore Rd, after having been packed into the car and driven along Lakeshore. I realized at this point that we were most likely heading somewhere really fun, and, unable to clearly detrmine where we were headed, decided barking my brains out, smearing the passenger side windshield with dog snot in the process and trying to climb out of the car via the dashboard would be a good way to release the pent up energy inside me. I was not aware the human had a headache, which made her slightly more intolerant of my ridiculous behaviour.

"Storm, sit!" she commanded.

I sat.

For about five seconds, before my ass popped up again and I resumed my attempt to climb out of the front windshield. And so it continued all the way to the RBG parking lot.

"Storm, sit!"

"Storm, SIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

We arrived at the RBG and found Diane and Cosmos. My human rolled down her car window, uttered something to Diane in frustration and next thing I know I'm being unceremoniously dumped into Diane's van. All good with me - Cosie was there, and it was fun. The part where she shut the door on my tail? Not so fun. I wasn't hurt.

The four of us went for a walk at Coote's Paradise. Paradise is a good word for it. That place is oozing chipmunks and squirrels. Seriously, I have never seen so many. I tried to chase all of them, nearly pulling the human over a few times. She tried to slow me down, stop me. I ignored her. Later in the hike, I nearly yanked her into a small creek, and into the lake during an attempt to chase down a couple of swans. By the time we were heading back to the car and I nearly yanked her down a hill while chasing a chipmunk, she was beyond mad at me. I had to do a down stay. I got up before she told me to - that got me into even more trouble.

It was worth it. I had SO much fun - swam, chased stuff, sniffed, explored, hung with my BFF.

I slept the rest of the day.