A few days after I got home Mommy started taking me to visit a very nice man. I had lots of fun going there. Oh, the sniffing was so much fun. All those intriguing animal smells kept me busy. The nice man put me up on a table and did some things. He stuck me with a couple of needles and talked a lot with Mommy. We went back several times but once when I was about six months old Mommy took me there early in the morning and left me. I don't remember much of what happened but when Mommy came back, the nice man told us that I would be much healthier and happier now that I was spayed. I'm not sure what that meant but after a couple of days being cuddled and staying in my crate, I was happy to be let out to run. I later found out that the nice man was a veterinarian and his name was Dr. Stevens. We visited him at least once a year from then on. I made up a fun game that Mommy and I would play. I would run as fast as I could around the house. It helped that Mommy kept all the doors in the house open and I could run in a big circle. I had trouble turning the corners on the slippery vinyl floor in the kitchen but that only slowed me down for a moment. The object of the game was to jump up on Mommy as she sat in her recliner. I thought it was fun and Mommy never said anything but looking back, I think my sharp little puppy claws and teeth were what caused all those bloody marks on her arms. I just thought it was part of the game when she started wearing elbow length oven mitts and kept a pillow in her lap for me to hit. I grew bored with this game after a few weeks. That was about the time that I discovered that I fit between her legs when she was in the recliner. It was a wonderful place to nap for both of us. I had a pretty good life here. First thing every morning, Mommy would get dressed and we would go out for a walk. Actually I walked while Mommy rode on her scooter. Inside the house she would use a walker but outside she always used the scooter. That walker made a great chew toy when I was loosing my baby teeth. The cool metal felt so good. Mommy gave me lots of things to chew but I always went back to the walker. She would laugh whenever she told her friends about it and showed them the marks my teeth had made on the walker's legs. I had a very well organized path for my morning walks. Almost every morning we'd meet other people who were out walking. They all knew my name and would stop to chat with Mommy. Sometimes they'd stay so long that I'd get bored and climb on the scooter until we started moving again. We always went for our walks too early to stop at my friends houses. In the afternoon we'd take a different route. This time we'd stop at all my friends. Most of them kept treats for me. They would have given me as many as I wanted but Mommy always set the limit at three. She said three but often an extra one or two would slip out when no body thought Mommy could see. Mommy had been a school teacher and I think it is true that a teacher has eyes in the back of their head because she always knew what was happening. In the afternoon we'd often meet Sandy, an Akita, and her mommy. Sandy and I would be let off those horrible leashes and run as fast as we could. Sandy could run fast but I was better at turning corners. Besides when I got tired I'd hop between Mommy's legs on the scooter and everybody knew the game was over. I did the same thing when George was out. George lived with Gordon but George wasn't as much fun as Sandy. There were two houses I could count on for always getting treats. Isabel lived in one. I had to laugh when she came to visit Mommy shortly after my dog door was installed on the lanai. Mommy had the back yard fenced in just for me and this dog door was so that I could let myself out when I needed to. I wasn't really interested in using it at first. Isabel was a very refined retired lady from Scotland and she decided to help Mommy show me how to use the dog door by standing outside with a treat. I guess she thought that I would go through the door to get the treat but I wasn't willing to do that. Next Isabel decided to show me how to do it by crawling through the door herself. We all had a good laugh at that. Eventually I started taking advantage of the freedom of using the dog door but I'll never forget how the silly humans tried to teach me. One day Mommy took me to a dog show not as a competitor but to have my picture taken by a professional pet photographer. I have never seen so many people or so many dogs! I knew the only safe place was between Mommy's legs on her scooter. That's where I went and fully intended to remain there. When they took me away from Mommy and put me on the table to have my picture taken, I froze. No tempting treats were going to make me perk my ears and look happy. I guess they all took pity on me because soon Mommy joined me on the table. They said that made me relax but I still wouldn't perk up my ears. Here is the picture. I'll let you be the judge of just how happy and relaxed I was.

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