Well, let's see about that. Star and I are going to leave in a few minutes to go play agility with some of our new friends. We haven't competed or practiced since May and we have a competition next weekend, so a little spin around a course might be nice to see if we remember how to function like a team. While we're gone, the boys will be here. Let's see if they will pick up pen in non-opposable dew claws and put down some words. Bye boys - stay outta trouble! We'll be back in a few hours.
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Sunny: Hey Xander. Mom just left. Let's get on the computer and write some stuff. I can't see so how about I narrate and you type?
Xander: Okay, big brother. Let's have some fun. Let's tell about how Mom doesn't have time for us anymore and how she just keeps moving us and leaving us at home with someone new.
Sunny: Okay. That'll make a real tear jerker for our doggy friends to read.
Sunny And Xander's 2014 Report
Sunny: We should probably start about a year or so ago when Mom took Star on a road trip and left me (Sunny) home with Micki and the 2 Schnauzers. When they got back 5 days later, I smelled something funny.
Xander: That was ME! You didn't like me right away. And then you really didn't like me when everyone wanted to throw the ball for me because I could chase it better, but eventually we got along fine.
Sunny: Yes. I realized you weren't so bad after all, and Mom really liked you so I learned to like you too. Well, then a month later, Mom was told she was going to lose her job. She started taking you to school on Monday nights and Star to agility on Wednesday nights, and working hard every day, which I wasn't quite sure I understood, because they already told her they were going to let her go after she trained the Indians. But then her hard work paid off, and she was offered the opportunity to move to Utah, the company headquarters. So we started packing again. Star and I know the routine - we had already moved a couple times since Mom adopted us.
In February, Mom loaded up the new van with dog crates and 4 bins of fragile house plants and beer and wine and survival gear and we headed out across the mountains. We tried to visit our friends in Montana but Mom's new van doesn't have AWD, so Paul had to come down the hill in his big truck and load all of us up and take us up to the house to run around for a while in the big snow drifts. That was fun. Then we were back on the road and safely in a nice hotel in Butte, before it started to snow.
It was about 5 degrees in Butte that night so Mom had to quickly move all the plants from the car into the hotel, and the water and other things that might freeze, like the dogs. The hotel had a great isolated parking lot with no moving vehicles far away from any busy roads, so we got to run around and play ball. Then it started snowing. All night it snowed. Mom woke up in the morning, looked out the window, and went back to sleep. We found out later that our moving truck stayed in the same town and was up and driving in that storm. We were smart and waited until the storm blew over and the roads were cleared and then it was smooth sailing. After repacking all the plants and liquids, etc.
8pm on Sunday night we arrived at our new rental house. Mom hadn't been able to check it out ahead of time so we were a little tentative coming into a strange place in the dark and looking around. We had all our camping gear since we didn't know when the movers would come with our other stuff, so we just slept downstairs. 12 hours later the moving truck showed up! That was too fast - we didn't know where we were going to put all the stuff yet. And the rooms were so small, our stuff barely fit. The basement was full. The garage had a lot of extra stuff in it. We had carried a lot of extra stuff in the car thinking we'd be roughing it for 3-5 days. And Mom said that she was looking forward to doing nothing for a few days. She looked a little worn out when the movers left and she had to start unpacking. After all, she had only finished packing 3 days before, and then spent 2 long days driving! And rest stops with 3 dogs are no picnic.
We spent the week getting settled and finding our way around town, and then Mom went back to work. First she had the neighbor girl come over to let us out at lunch. Then she hired a lady we didn't like. And then she hired Lauren. We LOVED her. She taught Xander to take food gently, and she played ball with me and Xander and cuddled with Star. Mom came home 2 days a week to take care of us at lunch, and Lauren came over 3 days a week. Then Lauren moved away and we were sad, but Denise and Megan started coming over, and we really liked them too.
But then Mom said we were moving again! We were buying another house, with a big backyard, and another dog, Kona, was going to come live with us. Mom didn't take any time off this time - she just left us home with Kona's mom, Loretta. Eventually Loretta got a job and Denise and Megan came back. But we never got to see Mom. She just worked and worked, 8 days a week. She said 80 hours a week divided by 10 hours a day equals 8 days a week. She said that's called Math.
Then about 4 months after we moved in to our new house, Xander started limping. The doctor came and said he has a torn ACL. That's what I had - 2 of 'em! He doesn't know if he has to have surgery yet, but he can't do agility training right now, so Star had to start again so Mom had someone to play with, once she started working only 6 days a week, in October.
Mom was pretty excited in October when she got promoted to Assistant Controller after only 3 years as an accountant. I guess that's what hard work gets ya - more hard work! We're just happy when she comes home and rolls on the bed or on the floor with us. That's the highlight of our day!
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