We went on a morning and evening Dog Walk today, this morning we did the hill, tonight we did the cornfield.  Three of the cats, July, Hillside kitty, and Tequila tagged along.  We don’t mind them so much except when they insist on leading.  Man are they pokey!  It gets dark early in Southwest Iowa in November.  It was pitch black for humans by five p.m., but it’s getting close to a full moon so we could see to get back home.  We were on full alert just in case Huck tried his vampire leap on us.

On Dog Walk this morning Huck ran off to check on the cows again, while Momma Dog and I studied the edible mushroom Grifola Frondosa or Hen of the Woods.  I found it quite fascinating.  It grows around Oak trees, in our case a Burr Oak, and is supposedly delicious.  When Huck got back we smelled it but it didn’t seem like food to us.  Ick!  Probably some other people food like fruitcake.  What is that green thing in fruitcake anyway?  In Japan, Hen of the Woods is called Maitake and is used in a variety of dishes.

In the afternoon we were left home alone while our people saw the movie “Up”, so we played poker.  Momma Dog said we would like ”Up” because there are a lot of dogs in it.  Then she said something like ”live your life every day because life is the adventure”.  Later Huck asked me “how else would you live it?”  I just shook my ears.

Something new showed up on dog walk this morning.  Our neighbor has put up part of his Christmas display of a lighted Santa Claus and his eight big reindeer.  This intrusion required much barking on our part and strangling sounds as we tried to push ourselves through the hogwire to kill it.

It is one of our favorite days here today, house cleaning!  We fight with the sweeper, we stand in the dirt Momma Dog sweeps up in the kitchen looking  for choice morsels that might have been dropped on the floor.  Momma Dog would never sweep  us with the broom, but we know better than to trust Grandma Taylor like that. Wham Bam! We’d be in the next room on our backs.  G. Taylor grew up with the “people inside, animals outside” motto and every animal had better have a purpose.  “Pet” was not in the vocabulary back then.  Former President Jimmy Carter mentions that in his book, “Always a Reckoning”.  Anyway, today is Grandma Dog’s 94th birthday and Momma Dog is baking her a German Chocolate cake.  We always get a lick from the bowl off of Momma Dog’s finger.  Well, I do, Huck won’t eat anything off a finger.  He says he got stung on a dill pickle one time because he trusted the little monster he use to live with, so whatever it is Momma Dog has to put it in his dish so he can smell it first.  No terrier is ever tricked twice! Oh Boy!  Momma Dog just brought the scrub bucket out, I just love the way my tracks look on the kitchen flour.

Whoo Hoo!  What a Thanksgiving we had, turkey, visitors, napping.  Nemo took gorilla with us on Dog Walk this morning and as usual dropped him halfway up the hill.  Momma Dog stuck him up in a tree so we could find him when we came back.  You should have seen Nemo when he realized it was His gorilla sitting up there.  You would have thought it was 2012!   It took both of us and two cats to get him down.  Then I shook the stuffing out of him just to teach him a lesson and to see Nemo boil.  Later, Mate.  Huck

NEMO! NEMO! Wake up!

mmmffffffmmmm..

There’s a dead turkey in the kitchen and whatever killed him eviscerated him and stripped off all his feathers!  It’s a horrible sight, no head, no feet. OMG! Did VOG do that?  Is it aliens?  That’s it, feather eating aliens!  They’ve been watching us for awhile Nemo, that’s why I can’t find a turkey feather for Bailey.

Eviscerate???  Calm down wee grasshopper terrier.  Momma Dog bought a turkey at the store for Thanksgiving, he came naked like that.

There’s a store?  With meat in it??  We’ve got to learn to drive.

Winds are gusting to thirty-one mph here in Southwest Iowa with a temperature of 40.  The cute little opposum with the big white stripe on his face visited last night, so Huck and I backtracked him to a big woodpile down below our house this morning on Dog Walk.  Huck is inside there right now looking for him.  Everyonce in awhile we hear a muffled gmmfffffftttt.  He doesn’t seem to care that a big log could fall on him and crush him to cheese spread.  Momma Dog likes Mr. opposum, she’ll be naming him before long.   Once a neighbor asked my Uncle Steve if he was going to raise any cattle on his ranch.  “No,” he said.  “My wife would have every cow named in a week.”

Cold rain last night and this morning in southwest Iowa.  Listening to the news and hearing it was 44 degrees with a north wind, a certain terrier decided not to go on Dog Walk this morning, preferring to sleep in on the fleece wrap Momma Dog got for her birthday.  I would like to thank Dale for sympathizing with me in his comments about Huck running around with his treat all day.  It’s hard to be the stout dog in the family.  People look at Huck and say “oh, isn’t he cute, what a sweet little dog!”  All they ever say about me is “oh my goodness, he’s got the cutest butt!”  Thanks for understanding that “cute” comes in all sizes.  Pass me the biscuits!

Yippee!  The corn’s out of the field so we all walked back to the line fence this morning.  We haven’t been back there since May so there were a lot of new places to investigate.  No fog this morning either and the temperature is  in the 50′s at eight a.m.  Huck thinks he can get Momma Dog a wild turkey for Thanksgiving, but I’ve told him I’m not biting anything’s neck.  Rounding them up might be fun though.  After listening to Huck last night I’m not sure I’ve got the stamina for it.  He was reading a new American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals chart listing dog years followed by what  our age is in human years.  One year- 12 years; two years- 24 years; three years- 28 years; five years-36; seven years-44 years, etc.  He was quick to point out larger dogs age faster than smaller ones too.  That makes me about 30 now, no wonder I’m having a little trouble jumping up on the bed.

You’re having trouble jumping up on the bed because your fat stomach is in front of your back feet, Nemo!

Oh go bite something you little canine weasel!

Huck did not go with us on Dog Walk today, he stayed home and watched the McLaughlin Report with VOG.  Now I suppose we will be hearing about health care again!  I’ve been wanting Momma Dog to take an insurance policy out on Huck with me as beneficiary, but it hasn’t happened yet.  Probably the terrier group are in a high risk category anyway.

They are almost done harvesting the cornfield below our house, and whoopee, we will soon be able to walk around it.   Love, Nemo

Just wanted to let you know it was not I who chased after the corn picker this afternoon on Dog Walk.  Huck took off after it like it was the beast from hell and Momma Dog and I thought he’d end up combined and in the back of a truck.  We continued through the forest and up the back hill, since he couldn’t or wouldn’t hear us calling him, and by the time we were over to the line fence, he had caught up with us.  Now we are chewing on our chewbones as Momma Dog and VOG watch the Neb/Kansas State football game.  

Nemo (the good dog)