Animal Insting

Well, Piper pretty much doesn't want to go for walks anymore, so she can't really have any adventures while walking.  That's why Mom asked me if I would write today's entry, and I said I would be happy to do so because I LOVE to go walking!  Walking is a big, wonderful adventure, with so many things to sniff and so many things to mark.  I wish I could do some sort of scratch-and-sniff type of blog entry, so that you would be able to experience all the wonders that we dogs do when we are out walking, but computers just haven't evolved enough yet for me to do that.  So I will have to settle for using the photos that Mom took while we were out walking yesterday.

First, I will just say that everybody's yards around here this spring are full of little baby oak trees.  This happened because the oak trees made soooooo many acorns last fall that the squirrels could not begin to eat them all, and the ones that were left over sprouted.  Every time Mom mows the grass, she is basically mowing down a whole forest of oak trees!


One of our favorite streets to walk on was closed yesterday, so we had to go a different direction.  We're not sure why it was closed, but it was probably because some utility company was digging something up.  They have been doing that a lot lately, including in front of our house, where they dug up the water main right before Mom and Piper and Gabe got home from Texas.


A lot of times when we walk, dogs bark at us.  The reason they bark is because they think we are lucky to be out walking with our mom.  Either that, or they think we are invading their territory, and they are warning us to stay away.  Here's a weimaraner that was barking at us today.  Weimaraners are really tall, so they can see right over the tops of fences.  I wish I were tall like that instead of being a "sawed-off German Shepherd," which is what Mom likes to call me.


Here's a house that's in kind of bad condition.  It needs a new garage door and a new coat of paint, and who knows what the inside of the house looks like.  Also, the shrubbery is trying to take over the whole house.  The people who used to live there had some cages in their back yard, and in those cages, they kept wild animals like squirrels and raccoons.  We dogs know this because we could smell the animals, and Mom knows because she peeked through the cracks in the fence.  Then those people moved away, and somebody else bought the house, but they aren't taking very good care of it.  Sometimes they mow the grass, though, so that's good.


This house is very funny-looking because it's so little.  There used to be an old man who lived there, and we would see him walking up and down the sidewalk with his walker, and he told Mom that the Second Coming would be here soon because of the wars and stuff going on in the world.  But I don't think Mom believed him.  And the other funny thing about this house was that somebody else used to live there, but they always slept in a little pup tent out in the yard, winter and summer.  But then we think the old man must have died because the house got fixed up some, but it never was for sale, as far as we know, so maybe the person who used to sleep in the tent sleeps inside now.


Nextdoor to the little white house is the Cat Clinic.  I don't know why cats should get their own special clinic.  I've never heard of a clinic that is just for dogs, but it seems like if cats can have their own clinic, dogs should have one, too.


And across the street from the Cat Clinic is this dentist's office, but it's just a dentist for children, which is another example of what I would call discrimination, but Mom says it's specialization, not discrimination.


 Here's another business in the neighborhood, and it has kind of a silly name.  I think the most interesting thing about this place is that they have three dogs.  Two of them are beagles and the other one is some kind of mixed breed.  We didn't see the dogs yesterday, but sometimes we do.


Lots of people have flowers growing in their yards and in pots and stuff, but these people have a Winnie-the-Pooh theme.  In fact, Mom says it is sort of like a shrine to Winnie-the-Pooh.  If it had been closer to the sidewalk, Mel and I would have probably peed on it, but it was too far away for us to do that.


And here's one of our very favorite things to see when we're out walking past this certain house.  There is always a bunny there, sitting on the step, even in the winter, when there is snow.  And when one bunny gets old and worn out, another bunny takes his place.  Yesterday when we went by, we saw that the bunny was all ready for the Fourth of July, which will be coming up in a few days.  If I had a bunny like this, I would have a lot of fun tearing him open and pulling the stuffing out, and that's why Mom doesn't let me get near this bunny!

Well, that's all I have to tell you about our most recent adventures.  Thanks for reading Piper's blog today, even though it was written by me instead of by Piper!